Louisiana Livin': Thanksgiving in Oneonta

Don't forget that my blog is going private on Tuesday.

We decided to make the looooooooong trip to Oneonta, AL for Thanksgiving again this year. It is a very hard trip in the car with 2 kids, but we were glad we went to see my side of the family. I have mentioned before that my grandfather has 5 siblings and that he lives in a nursing home. This year was totally different from last year. It was sort of a sad year. One of my great-uncles passed away the Monday before Thanksgiving, my grandfather was unrecognizable and didn't make it to Thanksgiving, and Aunt Sue was in the hospital! Last year, everyone was present and everyone looked so happy! We were glad to be together.

We decided to make it a short trip. We left on Wednesday around 4 pm because both my mom and Neil had to work. That put us in Oneonta after midnight. We arrived at the motel where I had reserved a 2 bed/1st floor room. We received a king bed on the 2nd floor. We decided not to get Henry's pack and play because we assumed he would just end up in our bed anyway. Well, around 2 am he will still ready to play. Neil went and got his bed and off to sleep he went.

Everyone was up before 7 am in our room so we just decided to get ready for the day. We ate breakfast, checked out, and went to CVS. After going to the other motel to see family, we headed to Highland Lake. I tried to get Henry down for a nap on the screened in porch but he was not having it. I tried everything!

After lunch and seeing my grandfather at the nursing home...we got on the road back to Shreveport. Yes, we drove 16 hours to stay 12 hours. We knew we would have nothing to do on Thanksgiving night, no where to hang out with family, and no where to eat. It would be different if we had a living room or back yard to hang out in, but it is hard to cram 12 people into a tiny motel room. We arrived in Ruston around 9 pm and stayed with Nana and Grandad. We were ready to get out of the car!