Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Top Ten Things I Love About ... Reunions!

This Thanksgiving we had a whirlwind tour through Pennsylvania and Ohio with several opportunities to reunite with family, friends and classmates! We picked up Darlin' on the way home from a field trip in Washington, DC, rendezvousing with her at my hometown mall outside Philly at 11:45 p.m. Tuesday night.  We had a 10-12 hour drive to Dayton, OH ahead of us, through fog and rain.

We attempted to pull over around 3:30 am to get a few hours of sleep, but naturally Cupcake woke up.  Kinda hard to sleep while the baby is babbling, singing to her self, kicking the back of the seat and trying to wake up her sleeping siblings...so we continued our trek. We drove through the night, briefly joining many a trucker at a rest stop for an hour and a half of shut eye, this time the baby kept sleeping. Pretty sure Bud slept through the whole ordeal...typical teenage boy who can sleep through anything!  We made it to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base with an hour to get us all showered and dressed. We actually made it on time, wide awake and presentable (hopefully!)...aren't you impressed?!

Thanksgiving Day we drove several hours to spend time with Hubby's folks and continued our travels back to the Philly area dropping the kiddos off before attending my high school reunion on Black Friday (no shopping for me this year, so I decided to participate in Cyber Monday for the first time!) All in all, it was quite a trip, full of fun times worthy of one of my Top Ten lists. Here are some of my highlights:

1.  Attending a moving military ceremony to honor Hubby's college buddy as he was promoted to Colonel in the United States Air Force.

2.  Bowling with Cupcake for the first time and watching Hubby chase her down the lane as she ran after her bowling ball!  

3.  Catching up with friends over mulled wine from Germany while our teens connected over a board game and the little ones slept after chasing bowling balls! 

4.  Thanksgiving Day on the road to St. Clairsville, OH, culminating in a wonderful dinner at Cracker Barrel and relaxing with family afterward. (1st time ever eating out for Turkey Day!) Cupcake entertained us with her new Merry-Oke microphone, singing along to Jingle Bells, laughing all the way!


5.  Attending my 25th high school reunion near Springfield, PA.
Class of 1986

6.  Reminiscing with old friends while Hubby dutifully provided pictures of our kiddos right on cue. When classmates remarked how Darlin' is so pretty she could be a model, Hubby didn't miss a beat with his response, "No, she can't."


7.  Flipping through the yearbook with old friends...ah, the memories and the big 80's hairdos!


8.  Enjoying the music of the 80's, especially the TV show themes.  


9.  Thankful for name tags, because, although many looked very similar to their senior pictures, others did not - especially the men, because, well, they are no longer boys! (One lady evoked many glances of admiration at looking the same as the senior portrait after 25 years...only she turned out to be a spouse!  She very graciously embraced her mistaken identity!)

10.  Reunited with my own bed after days in the car and the glorious reality of sleeping in!

Leave a link or comment with your Thanksgiving Top Ten!

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