Thanksgiving 2020

 This Thanksgiving Break, we did a cost-benefit analysis and decided to head to Ohio to spend the holiday with my parents, whom I had not seen in 2 years. Check out Nick's fantastic packing skills below :D

We left Saturday morning, and spent the whole day traveling from SFO to Detroit, and driving from Detroit to Toledo. We ate our Subway sandwiches in the car as we drove down, and were ready to get some rest before spending some time together tomorrow. 

We ate breakfast together at Denny's (so weird to be able to eat inside a restaurant, as that is not a thing in California). We then walked around Meijer, not only picking out food for the week, but also fun Christmas gifts. We then spent time playing games (we tried two new games--Farkle and Monopoly Deal) and ordered pizza for dinner. 

On Monday, my mom and I had a shopping palazzo. We got started with our traditional donut and then went to Target, Bath and Body Works, JC Penny, Old Navy, and many others. We had a grand time finding deals and treats for ourselves and doing what we do best--mother daughter shopping trips. So grateful for this wonderful day of great memories with my mamma. 

On Tuesday, we went down to Sauder Village in Archbold, Ohio. I have very fond memories at Sauder Village, as we have been going there since I was a small child. While the village was closed due to the winter weather, the hotel is so nice and comfy cozy. We enjoyed the hot tub and pool, playing ping pong and air hockey in the game room. Nick and my mom got quite competitive with the ping pong and were going at it :D We also enjoyed the incredible food at the barn restaurant, which we basically had all to ourselves. After we finished eating, we went into the room to have our Christmas celebration. We had brought all of the presents all wrapped up and placed them under a "Christmas fern". Then, we opened away with Christmas music blaring. This was very special for my family, as we really do love Sauder Village, haven't celebrated Christmas together since Nick and I got married, and we are very good present givers and openers. We had a blast. I got this new game for Christmas called Dutch Blitz, and we had a gay old time opening that up and playing, which we played many more times throughout our time together. 

Wednesday, we left Archbold to cold and dreary weather and went back up to Toledo. We chilled for the rest of the day, enjoying all of the board games and spending time together.

Thursday was Thanksgiving, and we started off the morning right by watching the Macey's Thanksgiving Day parade. I enjoyed all of the Animal Crossing Turkey Day events as well. Nick also got very mad at me because we couldn't find the house/car keys anywhere, when it turns out that we had left them in CA. Thank goodness for our neighbors that were able to go and check for us. We ended up getting our meal from Boston Market that day, which was actually pretty good. We then wrote gratitude lists together, and my father and I decorated a gingerbread house. We also walked over to Sylvania Historical Village, just to check out the condition of everything and to show Nick where I had volunteered for so many years in middle and high school. 

We left on Black Friday due to the cheaper flight prices and to beat some of the crowds. SO SO SO grateful that we made the decision to go and see my parents, especially after the long gap without seeing them. We had so much to be grateful for during this crazy 2020 year.