Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful "break from reality", also known as a little holiday/vacation. We had really had no plans, other than a Thanksgiving meal, for the holiday, since all our friends were out of town. Then about a month ago we were invited to spend Thanksgiving with our good friends, Sam & Heather. They were some of our very first friends here in Virginia, and they moved a few years ago, up to the Richmond area. So we set off to enjoy some time with them!

The drive to their new house is 2hrs, door to door, and took less than 1/2 a tank of gas. And we learned our Christmas playlist on the ipod is about 1 song shy of exactly two hours. Pretty painless! As we approached their neighbourhood, we drove by this house, which I am quite certain is visible from space shuttles, and the long lost planet Pluto. I have NEVER in all my life seen an entire house, the surface of the windows, the surface of the doors, the roof...completely covered in lights.

 It was so bright it gave me a headache just looking at it. They must have blackout curtains on the windows to be able to live there!

I did a bunch of instagram pics of our time there. Brian and Sam were back to all their old competitions within moments:-) They have a new puppy Bichon/Poodle mix (a Poochon), Murphy, and the kids adored him! They also loved Shivers, the hamster, and the turtles. Grey really loves animals, so he was sad to go and leave those turtles.

We stayed with them for two nights, and then on Friday afternoon it was off to Williamsburg for phase two of our getaway. A time share. One of Brian's coworkers owns a time share, and there was a "deal" for friends of time share holders ages ago, for a two nights stay for $100. We paid for it (doesn't expire), probably almost 2 yrs ago now. HAH! Finding the time to go...hard to do! We finally set the time for Thanksgiving weekend. I verified with the booking lady - will there be space on a holiday weekend? She assured me they were not booked and had plenty of space.

When we arrived to check in, they informed us at this moment that we'd been bumped to the Best Western Historic. Time share owners get first dibs. Not exactly what we planned on. The time share condos are 2 bdrms, 2 bath, full kitchen. The Best Western is 2 queens, in one room. The kids thought this was AMAZING fun. We thought it was not nearly as fun being quiet until they all fell asleep;-)

One of the houses we saw in Williamsburg, all pretty and decorated

There was a pool though, so that makes up for everything, right?! We enjoyed our day in Williamsburg on Saturday - Dale and Lauren came and joined us for the day, but decided not to stay the second night and just make the 45 min trip home and sleep in our own beds:-)

Sunday, we set up our Christmas tree. It was also about 75 degrees outside, but decided it was high time for a fire in our fireplace. By Sunday night, all the friends previously out of town had returned, so we hosted a Friends-giving, and had some fun.

When you don't live near family, you really come to count on friends in that same way - as if they were family. They sorta seem like it, anyway.

Sawyer & Huck. Our friend Elizabeth took these pics and posted them saying "Bolgers don't play when it comes to Christmas ornaments" :-)

As soon as we set up the tree, the cats claimed it! Mischief makers! All my delicate ornaments are on hiatus this year. They are obsessed with the tree, and sleep in it, fight in it, climb it all the way to the top, and bat at any ornaments they feel like.

We had to clean out the chimney from the roof before we could start our fire.

Here's a little video of the cats:-)
   

and here is a clip from Friends-giving. Have you ever played Mad Gab? One of our friends Josh is the BEST, because he can't hear any of the words and just says the same thing over and over. It's just so funny to know that we all know what he's saying, and even he doesn't know what he's saying:-) Super funny!