I am a little sad to see my Thanksgiving break come to an end mostly because I have not sat for more than 30 minutes since I got off of work on Tuesday, but that is okay because it has all been worth the memories. I have come to the conclusion that a good life is full of lots of meaningful, cherished memories and lots of yearly, family traditions. With the holidays now in full swing the Derting's are on the right track to creating lots of both of these treasured things :)
Wednesday started out with cleaning, waiting on the delivery guys, a quick trip to Hickory, more cleaning and waiting on mom and the boys to arrive. Once mom and the boys (all of my brothers) got here mom and I began cooking for our Thanksgiving feast. However, no Thanksgiving (any occasion for that matter) would be complete without a last minute, late night run to Wal-Mart. That in itself is a tradition that never gets forgotten, we always need a couple of extra things once we start cooking, so we hop in the car and come back hours later with a trunk full. This tradition was a success once again!!! We cooked and cleaned till the wee hours in the morning and then we headed to bed for a few hours of sleep before getting up to put the turkey and ham in the oven.
Turkey day finally arrived with many things to accomplish before lunch time! Mom and I got up and of course Bryson heard us at 6 am, so he was up to for the rest of the day. Brooks and my brother, Wesley, were up as well so that they could go run the Turkey Trot 5k. So the day started smoothly and productive with the main dishes in the oven by 7 and us wondering if we should go back to bed or stay up. Mom tried to lay down for a little bit and Bryson was determined that we were staying up, so I decided to sweep and mop while everyone else was sleeping peacefully. I thought to myself....oh yeah, I am good its just 8 and I am almost finished cleaning the house and the food is all ready to be put in the oven, maybe, just maybe by the time 1:30 comes I will be waiting patiently for the guests to arrive with my hair done, make-up finished, and clothes on. Well, I should have known that will never be a tradition, my tradition is to run around like a crazy person, barking out orders of put this here and that there, and demanding that people don't step on my freshly vacuumed carpet lines. So I am ADMITTING, to what my family already knows,.....my tradition is to be CRAZY until the event starts and then (maybe) I will settle down. I should add that at 1:30 I was still drying my hair in my robe...so I wasn't ready, but that is a tradition!! Finally, everyone arrived mom and Brooks had the food nicely laid out and the turkey craved and my house was spotless, so I was smiling inside because once again we pulled it off!!! Thanksgiving was full of good conversations and some laughs along the way :) In the end many memories and traditions were made once again!
Thanksgiving night was as it has been for the past few years...we pulled out the Christmas decorations out of the attic and the madness to decorate began. Once we filled the garage with the 5+ totes, boxes and bags we decided to go to Zootastic as we did last year, so that we could make it a tradition. Mom, Brooks, Bryson and myself loaded up and headed out. We drove through the lights and stopped to feed the goats and sheep (no reindeer this year people, for those that know that memory...lol) and we roasted marshmallows before heading to the big barn. When we got to the barn....sorry mom, I have to....mom fell off the sidewalk (in her defense it isn't that safe) and that is a tradition for her because she always has a tendency to fall when she is around me. We got her up and walking again and went to see Santa. Bryson got his picture made of course because his Gaze was with him and he gets whatever he wants when she is around (which could possibly be a bad tradition). Mom and Bryson played with the snake because reptiles don't scare my family and then we went out to see the horses, cows, llamas, and camel. On the way there Bryson fell because again the sidewalk was not the safest. Once we fed those guys and admired the 2 day old llama Bryson rode the pony and then we headed home. Memories and traditions in the making that night!
Mom and I have this crazy tradition to join the other crazy people that shop on Black Friday, so Friday morning we slept in a little bit and got up at 4:30 and headed to Hickory to catch our yearly after Thanksgiving deals. We actually did pretty good at the mall, got a few things at Old Navy and Marshalls and then headed to the Conover Wal-Mart because that is our Black Friday tradition. We were home by 10 am with a car load full of Christmas goodies!! We wanted a nap.....mom got one and I didn't. Bryson was too excited about all of the decorations being in the house, so he and I decorated his tree and the spare room tree and put a few other Christmas things out. By early afternoon mom and I were back out and shopping some more because our tradition is to go to Belk and Bath and Body in the Statesville mall on Black Friday because of course its not as crowded, so we kept with tradition and headed to the mall. When we finally got home from our shopping spree, I began work on the tree in the den and cleaning and decorating the kitchen. By Friday night the house was in shambles with Christmas decor everywhere, but we headed to bed and I planned on finishing it up on Saturday!
Saturday morning we finally slept in till 9ish and then it was time for mom and the boys to head home and Brooks and Bryson to head to some new race track in Mooresville. Everyone was out by noon and I was alone with a house to decorate and gifts to wrap, so I worked all day to accomplish these things and thankfully by the time Brooks and Bryson got home at 10 the house was pretty much finished and all presents were wrapped :) My tradition in this, is to have everything decorated the weekend after Thanksgiving, so we can sit back and enjoy it for a couple of weeks and this has now been achieved!
And so comes the last day of Thanksgiving break.....we got up early and headed North with my daddy to Shatley Springs for lunch which is also a tradition. When we arrived there was honestly more people from Statesville there than any other place. We had a good lunch and then headed to the Christmas tree farm that we always went to when I was a kid. This is a memory that I cherish with my parents and brother....and I am hoping that Bryson will one day cherish this same memory/tradition. This was our 2nd year cutting down our tree at the tree farm and he remembered last year and he even asked if we were going to do the hayride like we did last year. It took me a while to find the perfect tree because I will admit, I am a little picky. We found the one and waited for the guys to come and cut her down. While we waited my dad and Bryson played in the rows of trees trying to scare each other. Then we headed down the mountain with a detour through Boone because my dads tradition is to drive and drive to see new things. Also, he drove down the mountain like the old days.....as FAST as he could!! We made it home and unloaded our 8th and final tree! So now the house is complete and ready for Christmas, every room has a tree and all the lights outside are hung and shining in the night!
The weekend has been FULL of memories and traditions that we will look back on for years to come and although I am exhausted and I have to work tomorrow, I am very thankful to have had a PERFECT, MEANINGFUL Thanksgiving break. I am hopeful that one day Bryson will share these same memories and traditions with his family. I hope that you and your family were as blessed as my family was this Thanksgiving. So now we move onto to a new holiday and I can only hope that we will make many more memories and recreate family traditions as we have done in the past week.
Have a GREAT week....make memories and traditions as often as you can!!! Love you :) Alysha
