Thanksgiving day with my extended family (as in very extended family).

 Yesterday may have been one of the happiest days of my life. I think I'm having a serotonin let down today because I have an overwhelming feeling of dread that we are moving away from this (or movers come in two weeks--I can't even believe that's real). My sisters and I have been  crying off and on all day and I can't seem to shake the feeling that we are making a huge mistake. I know we're not--I know we are making the right choice. But I've in a 100 yard radius for 27 of my (soon to be) 33 years on the planet. 

I was on the go from about 5:30 yesterday morning until about 7 at night and am so exhausted today. Our husbands agreed to take all the kids today so Jenn, Jess and myself are all cuddled up in Jenn's bed rotting away at social media, giggling, crying, hugging, sharing videos, looking at furniture, etc... We've stopped and started The Notebook about 20 times but we keep getting interrupted by "We listen and don't judge" fails or really well done "Back home baller" skits on TikTok. I hope we get going with the movie soon though because Jessica and I love annoying the crap out of Jenn every time the rain scene comes on. I'm Allie, she's Noah and my "Why, It wasn't over for me!?!" should win me an Oscar and Jessica's "I wrote you 365 letters!" brings a tear to my eye every time.  I am so blessed to have my sisters also as my best friends. After our 20th fight of the day yesterday, Bubs and Jess's husband pointed out that they can't figure out why we fight so much since the three of us share the same brain. 

Like I said yesterday,  I don't want to ever forget yesterday. It may have been a perfect example of a huge holiday celebration that is loud, chaotic and exhausting but amazing memories for everyone. Initially, we were going to have a very small dinner at my parents. But as the planning went along more and more people were added until we had a guess list of 45 people. We ended up having to use all four kitchens and we had to use my brother-in-law's truck to move furniture so we could fit everyone in Jenn's house. There was a steady stream of kids moving in between all four of our houses because there were different activities set up in each to keep them busy. It was crazy. 

Here's the final guest list with some commentary on each: 

The four of us from my family. 

My oldest sister Jenn, her husband and 3 kids. They originally planned on going to Dallas to see his family. She not only changed her mind at the last minute, she decided she wanted to host which of course caused a huge rift between she and my mom. 

My younger sister Jess, her husband and her two kids. 

My brother Brian and his girlfriend Genevieve. The were originally going to drive to New Mexico so he could meet her family but Brian couldn't get out of work today so they decided to stay. But at the last minute they asked if they could bring guests. Of course, why not? More on them in a sec. 

My mom and dad. 

Bub's parents. They originally said they were going to stay at home and just watch football but when Bub's mom remembered we were moving, they just sort of showed up. Totally fine. The more the merrier...but my mother-in-law took about two seconds to rip open the old wound of my daughter shaving her head. That was a dead issue but as soon as she walked through the door she loudly proclaimed "Danielle, you aren't going to let that little girl shave her head are you! I couldn't live with that!" My daughter had long forgotten the issue--until that exact moment. Bubs even brought me a glass of wine to take the edge off--I almost drank it I was so freaking annoyed with her. I calmly responded with "no Mom, we haven't talked about it for a while until you just brought it up." My lighting quick daughter reminded me how much easier grappling would be if she wasn't always having to mess with her hair--her perfect strawberry blonde hair that I've brushed every day for close to 9 years now. Thanks Mom, glad to have you. 

Bub's sister and her boyfriend. 

Jess's mother-in-law and her boyfriend. Who brought 4 dozen raw oysters he'd had on ice since leaving New Orleans. I would have been in heaven had I not been pregnant. 

My dad's cousin, Uncle Jessup (that's not a joke name) who looks and talks exactly like Billy Bob Thornton from the show Landman.  After a while, we just had to give up on correcting him from saying "fuck" in front of the kids. 

Our second cousin (who used to be Bub's baseball coach), his 2nd wife and their combined 6 kids. 

I think that covers all the people related by blood in someway or another. Then we get to the welcome strays that came from all sorts of different places: 

Jenn's best friend from college and her three kids. 

Jess' really good friend who owns day spa in town, her husband and two kids. 

Daniel (yes the boy version of my name--that wasn't confusing at all!) he's the engineer that Bubs and my dad hired for their company. He is a recent college grad who could be so handsome but hides it under a very nerdy exterior. I've always felt bad because he moved to our podunk area for his first job and doesn't get out much so I was very happy he could make it. 

Genevieve's three friends from Texas State who couldn't make it to relatives' houses. My sisters and I were in her kitchen looking out over the driveway when we saw these 3 stunners walking up the driveway thinking that they had to be lost. When they introduced themselves as Evie's friends it made total sense. These three were an absolute hit with Uncle Jessup and my son--who I think at that moment realized that Evie wasn't the only beautiful girl that would come through his life and he could forgive Uncle Brian for stealing her away. While Uncle Jessup tried to wow the young girls with his knowledge of large scale irrigation systems, TJ competed for their attention with his knowledge of Xbox and guns. I thought it would be really nice to introduce them to Daniel since they were roughly in the same age bracket and he's having trouble meeting people since moving here. Bubs pleaded with me not to, of course I ignored him. But Daniel was so awkward and shy that no progress was made. Though I did ask one of the girls what she thought of him and she said that "he's really cute, but painfully shy." Bubs said he couldn't stop me from playing match maker with my brother but hands off his employee. Of course I'm going to ignore him and I got all the girls contact info. Hey, I've done it once before and that time was so successful I lost my babysitter--of course I needed their numbers! 

Lol...I had to take a little break from blogging because we finally got through The Notebook. As Ryan Reynolds was rowing the boat and the rain started to come down harder Jenn told us "please don't do it  you two, please don't." Jess and I agreed while giving each other a nod and at the exact perfect time I stormed off the bed them stormed back and gave Jess my best pleading look and said "Why didn't you write me! Why! It wasn't over for me! I waited for you for seven years! Now its too late!" Jess hit her marks perfectly and Jenn really stormed off telling us how immature we are. She got over it very quickly and now our movie is over and we're back on devices but still tucked in my older sisters bed just like we used to do when we were kids. 

So where was I...oh yes the pure chaotic joy of  Thanksgiving. The was my sister's first chance to run the show, though she did it with a lot of help from me and my younger sister. My older sister is a massive control freak and the three of us fought off and on all day long. We would snap at each other and then apologize and then start giggling then back to fighting 20 minutes later. One time Jess and Jenn actually told me I was acting like a bitch as we were hugging to make up from a fight...meaning our next little spat started as we were making up from the previous fight!  My mom finally had to take us aside and tell us that while it was nice we were taking most of the work off of her, we were acting like assholes and embarrassing her. I think that made us all feel bad and we were pretty much on our best behavior for the rest of the day. 

Jenn had dreams of gorgeous place settings with the best cutlery but with that many people we basically had to do it buffet style which in itself was chaotic but quite the site to see that many people lined up for food in my sister's dining room. Jennifer deserves a ton of credit because she cooked two amazing turkeys and a ham. I did the mashed potatoes and gravy and Jess made a ton of side dishes that never seemed to stop. We gave the guests the option to a bring a desert and one of the Texas State girls made a chocolate cake that almost brought tears to my eyes it was so good. Being just shy of 20 weeks pregnant is a great excuse to indulge and I'm not even sure how many servings of food I had but my tummy looked like it was about to burst. 

Our amazing husbands and brother took care of the clean up and we finally got off our feet just as the football games were ending. We stayed up and laughed and talked until about 11 when everyone who didn't belong in one of the four houses went home. TJ got invited to have a sleepover at Uncle Brian's and Evie's new apartment in the city and he was so excited. Uncle Jessup invited the college girls for a sleepover at his little hermit's hut outside of San Antonio--they all politely declined but apparently Uncle Jessup was quite hit dancing with them on their Instagram stories. 

So yeah--it was so much fun and I think one of those little life events that signified our generation is slowly taking over from our parents and we are going to do an ok job of it. But at the same time it reminds me that I'm moving away from a family that ca get together and host a thanksgiving for 45 people and pull it off. I'm moving to a place where I will know virtually no one. I won't be able to spend a day in bed with my sisters like I'm able to now. It's heartbreaking actually. This has always been our reset. From the time we could all walk we would always meet up in Jenn's bed to talk about how unfair our parents were. Or how we were going to keep Brian from getting killed because he "found" himself with his hand ups the shirt of some pretty girl who just so happened to have a boyfriend. Or Jenn telling me how she was pregnant and the baby's dad wanted nothing to do with her. Or Jess telling us she was pregnant only a month after giving birth .Sitting in Jenn's bed is where I told my sisters that my life had blown up on a small section of the internet and I had been too afraid to tell them how close I had come to getting a divorce. 

My rational brain keeps telling me that we can still do days like yesterday and today. And realistically, as we've gotten older it isn't very often that we get whole days to hang out. We can have phone conversations and zoom and I can always fly home for a three day weekend and be welcomed with open arms. My emotional side just got done looking at my older sister crying her eyes out because we are leaving in about 3 weeks and my younger sister telling me that I can't leave her alone with or crazy older sister. 

We will be fine...all of us. But sometimes the hardest things happen because we were blessed enough to know the good things we are losing. 

Time to go have a good cry everyone. I truly appreciate all of you for reading my ramblings--and god knows how many spelling and grammar errors there are going to be in this. It's tough to type when you are being jostled around in a king size bed by two of the people you love the most in the world.