Family, Pictures, and Grown Up Little Sisters

This past week we loaded up the fruitcake and stuffed Beanie in his car seat and drove 10 hours to my sister’s house in Virginia.   Once we got on the road though, the traveling actually ended up taking about 14 hours each way.   We stopped to spend the night at a hotel and ended up driving about four hours on Thanksgiving morning.

Chris explained to Bean that in hotels, you were allowed to jump on the beds.   Turns out, this was the perfect way to start another long day of driving.   I yelled at Chris that he was going to hurt Bean, so he wrapped him in pillows.   I’m not really sure what difference that made, but Bean liked it.   Even though it looks like he’s upset in the pictures, Bean is actually yelling and screeching in happiness as they jumped.

This was my sister’s first time hosting a holiday event for our family at her house.   It is so strange to see your little sister in that hostess role!   She and her fiance live in a tiny town on the Virginia/Tennessee border where John Michael is building a hospital with his company (JM is a general contractor).   She had told me before what a small town it was, but I had no idea.   ITS TINY!!   One morning Ginny and I were standing out on the back porch and I said something about there being a distinct smell in the air.

“Oh, that’s the cows,” she said.   “There are some over that hill over there and some on the other side over there.”

We both died laughing.   If you knew my sister, you would know what a stretch this is for her to live in a small town like this.   But actually, when I spent some time with her there, she is really taking to it.   She’s happier than I’ve ever seen her (I’m assuming that is thanks to John Michael and not the cows…) and she seems calmer, too.   She and John Michael were the perfect hosts and it was really great to see that side of both of them.

On Friday after Thanksgiving, we met up with some of our extended family at a Christmas tree farm in the mountains so that Ginny and John Michael could choose their first Christmas tree.   It was a lot of fun!

Wanna know why I love technology?   The branch of our family that we met up with at the tree farm is one that I don’t see very often.   Actually, I don’t think I’ve seen some of them since my wedding 5 years ago and others I had never even met.   But my Grandmother had passed along my blog to some of them a while ago and it has since been passed around to almost all of them.   So, here we were meeting people for the first time in years, but they all knew me already!   They were yelling out, “ITS THE BEAN!   ITS THE BEAN!”   Some of them who had never met Chris knew all about him and they were asking us all about our lives and congratulating us on things that normally extended family wouldn’t know about.   It was such a warm, welcoming bond between us, I thought.   The blog had bridged a gap in the some-odd years it had been since we’d all seen each other.

My great aunt Barbara and her daughter Julie with Julie’s family.   Both Aunt Barbara and Julie read my blog and knew all about what we’d been up to!

My great aunt Barbara (Bean’s great-great aunt!).   And that’s Jacquie in the back there talking to my mom in the hood.   Jacquie is my great-great cousin (I think?).   I had never met her before, but she comments on my blog and sends me emails occasionally about blog posts, so I felt like I knew her!

My aunt Joan and her kids, Jake and Abby.

My dad in his “Go to Hell Hat.”   If you don’t like it hat, you can go to hell.   Can you tell I get my attitude from my him?!?

Me and my great-cousin, Julie.

We also took the opportunity at the tree farm to take family Christmas pictures.   I think we’re all using these as our Christmas cards this year!

In this picture, that’s my Grandma in yellow in the center and my mom and her brother, Uncle Tim in the two chairs.   Behind Uncle Tim is my Aunt Joan and their kids, Jake and Abby.   Behind my mom is her family, me, Chris, Ginny, John Michael, and my Dad.   And, of course, Beanie is front and center.

Ginny was complaining because she wore heels to the tree farm and it was really muddy.   When we all gave her crap about wearing heels, she said, “I was told there would be a tractor to carry us around!   Where’s my tractor!   Can somebody get me a tractor?”   She found some young guy who worked there and was slowly sweet talking him into driving her around to look at trees so she wouldn’t have to walk and I think he was just about to let her jump on the back of his four-wheeler, but John Michael walked up.   And in case you can’t tell from the pictures, John Michael is a big dude at about 6’5 feet tall.   He’s a big teddy bear, but to some high school kid I’m sure it seemed like a bad idea to drive off with his fiance, so Ginny ended up having to walk.

While Gin was a good sport, Beanie was not at first.

It was really cold up on the mountain.   I had him in a quilted sling and then wrapped in a blanket.   At first he was pretty upset because he hadn’t been in his sling in a while and he’s gotten kind of wiggly lately so the sling was too constricting.   But once we got out in the cold, he seemed pretty grateful to be all bundled up.

We even found Bean-sized Christmas trees!

On Saturday, Ginny took the family to a local winery for a wine tasting session.   The winery was located on this small little mountain road next to a creek that ran through the property.   It was just beautiful!   It was a really great way to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon.

Bean was fussy, so we thought this sign was appropriate.

Please don’t judge me for dressing my child in camo.   Aunt Ginny bought him this camo hoodie to wear while he was in the mountains.   She said he would now fit in with her neighbors.   It was actually pretty darn cute, although I’m not sure how well camo will go over in our Connecticut suburb…

Chris took Bean down to the creek and let him see the water.   Bean was in awe.   He just stared at the water and squealed!

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging around Gin’s house with our immediate family.   It was all about food, football, and family.   I don’t think weekends get any better than that!

Bean loved my Uncle Tim!

Bean and my Grandma, his Great-Grandma.

Another year, another Thanksgiving.   But my goodness what a difference a year makes!   We now have a new member of the family, my sister’s fiance John Michael, we have a new baby, we have a new town to visit, and family to reconnect with thanks to technology.   So many, many things to be thankful for.

Now, let’s bring on Christmas!

For more on what Bean’s week was like, check out The Bean’s page.