Thanksgiving break officially started, in my book, when I picked Milly up after school on Tuesday the 20th. Normally I get her Tuesdays and Wednesdays, though she goes back to her mom’s house in the evenings. Since she was out of school on Wednesday though, and Amanda wasn’t off work anyway, there was no point in me taking her back that evening only to pick her up early the next morning. So Thanksgiving break started Tuesday afternoon, but it started in tears.

It started in tears because Milly asked a question. She asked, “So what’s the plan?”

The Thanksgiving plan involves getting together with my side of the family. This year, my side of the family was getting together at Andra and Josh’s house in Gastonia, in large part because of Josh’s work schedule. With Tristen still feeling sick from her first trimester, the unknowns of traveling almost four hours with two nine(almost ten)-month-olds, and all the stuff we’d have to cram into the car (I should have gotten a van instead of a three-row SUV), we decided to stay in town for this Thanksgiving.

Milly was really looking forward to seeing everyone, and not just her cousin Addy. “But Thanksgiving’s about family,” she reasoned with me. She was pretty bummed the whole ride back to the house, but she cheered up eventually. I think her friend from across the street, Abigail, came over to play. I can’t quite remember because, to be totally honest, I’m writing this almost a month after the fact. I’m pretty sure they played most of the day on Wednesday.

And the fact that I’m writing this well after the fact is why the rest of the Thanksgiving holiday will lack a lot of details. I probably wouldn’t have even bothered coming back to write about it if it weren’t 1) a major holiday and 2) Fawkes’s and Phoenix’s first Thanksgiving, so I would like to remember what we did for it.

We spent most of Thanksgiving Day at the house, not really doing much of anything. That evening we went over to Tristen’s parents’ house, as did Torrie, Johnny, Sebastian, and Gabriel (who was also marking his first Thanksgiving). Mary was there, too.

We ate a wonderful traditional Thanksgiving dinner, with turkey, stuffing, and the like. We didn’t have any canned cranberry sauce, unfortunately, but there was some that was nearly as good. Laura had seasoned some plain Saltine crackers with a few things, including a dry ranch mix. At first they felt a little spicy, but I really liked them, especially with a little slice of cheese. I couldn’t stop eating them before dinner. And of course, Craig made some of his Chex mix. I’m not a huge fan of Chex mix, but Milly always says that Pappy makes the best Chex mix.

I don’t think we did much of anything on Friday. I was very seriously considering getting up to get a Best Buy Black Friday deal. It was a 70-inch 4K TV for… I don’t remember how much, but it was a really good deal. It was like $300 off or something. Do I need a 70″ 4K TV? Well, no. Tristen said she wouldn’t mind if I went out and got a 4K TV, but she wants to have some room left on the mantle, and a 70″ might take up all of it. I told her if I was going to get a new one, it needed to be bigger, so we compromised on a 65″, which isn’t nearly as impressive-sounding as a 70″. It also isn’t really the best time to get a TV anyway, with Christmas coming up and plenty of medical bills and such we still need to pay off. So no new TV. Yet.

Saturday was the Wrightsville Beach Flotilla. Laura always gets a few rooms and invites friends. There’s food, a little bit of drinking, lighted-up decorated boats, and, of course, the fireworks. It was the first time Fawkes and Phoenix got to see fireworks. We had them at 4th of July, but they were asleep for them. They certainly held the boys’ attention.

Milly played with Sebastian a good bit. She’s very good with him. At one point they were lying in bed and she was reading to him, which was sweet.

We thought we’d live on the wild side and decided to spend the night at the hotel. There was a pack & play there and we brought ours, so the boys slept in those. Milly ended up sleeping on the couch instead of the Murphy bed and Tristen and I took the bed. It actually went pretty well.

We were supposed to have some bagels or something for breakfast the next morning, but there was a miscommunication and Laura and Craig, along with the breakfast, were gone by the time we were in touch with anyone. We’d been up, but didn’t want to call or text anyone in case other people were still sleeping. We hung out with the Romeros for a little bit before heading back home ourselves, stopping by Rise to pick up some food, then we just took it easy the rest of the day.

And that was Fawkes and Phoenix’s (and Gabriel’s) first Thanksgiving.