Thanksgiving ’17 on the Farm Deemed a Blast by All

Thanksgiving 2017 will certainly go down as one of the more eventful ones in my life, if not the most eventful. For one, I don’t recall having ever made a big deal out of Thanksgiving. And secondly, with Johnny’s school closed for 3 days, I took it upon myself to haul the boy up to Carpenter to hang out with his seldom-seen family for a few days!

The plane rides themselves were quite memorable. As we boarded our plane from Austin to Minneapolis Tuesday evening, Johnny wet his pants, something that hasn’t happened in forever. Though I had many extra diapers, I failed to bring extra pants on my carry-on bag. His training pants were mostly dry, meaning he just peed out a crack in them. Well anyway, he was soaked for the whole flight, and by the time we got to Minneapolis all stores were closed. We had no choice but to just hustle to our gate and sit in urine on the short jaunt to Sioux Falls. And since I had carried Johnny to our gate, I was now soaked in pee too. The poor woman next to us on the plane… I know she could smell it.

On the farm, Johnny had a blast over the four full days playing with cousins, especially Adrienne, the closest in age to him. I suspect he also enjoyed the break from typical school week routine, which of course meant watching more TV than usual, eating a lot less healthy, and constant attention from grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. He got to help Grandpa in the tractor and combine, and help Alex in the semi hauling corn. He got to drive around the farm in the toy Escalade and jump on the trampoline and have a sleepover with all seven cousins.

I too had a nice break from both work and city life for a few days. The highlight of the trip for me was the Friday night trip to Yale and Huron for karaoke for Jordan’s 33rd birthday celebration. We certainly had our fair share of drinks and singing that night. Thanks to Calvin for driving!

Johnny was devastated when we got into our hotel room in Sioux Falls at the end of the trip and realized Grandma and Grandpa weren’t meeting us in the room. He so hoped that the plane we were flying on was somehow taking us right back to the farm. We had to wake up at 3:10am to catch our flight from Sioux Falls to Minneapolis, and then had a long layover before our flight to Austin. Johnny got downright looney by the end of the journey, whacking himself in the face with his shoes on his hands, singing a nonsense song. He immediately passed out for a five-hour nap upon arrival home.

Thanks to the Glanzers for their hospitality and to all those who cooked delicious Thanksgiving dishes! Hope to make it back sooner than 11 months next time. Lord knows Johnny hopes it’s far sooner than that.

And now for a photo gallery in reverse chronological order…