It feels like Thanksgiving didn’t really happen this year…

maybe because Cindy and Baby R were both sick the entire week and didn’t really have enough of an appetite to enjoy any Thanksgiving food…

or maybe because we decorated for Christmas waaaay too early this year (on Veteran’s Day to be exact) which took away from the excitement and festiveness of Thanksgiving (lesson learned… decorations should definitely go up after Turkey Day)…

or maybe because we didn’t have any plans on actual Thanksgiving Day and ended up feeling a little lonely and abandoned in the city (mostly because we celebrated with Jake’s family the day before and were going on a trip with Cindy’s family the day after so we needed Thanksgiving day to pack… but it did make Thanksgiving Day feel like any other day though and not a special holiday)…

or maybe a combination of all those reasons…

But Thanksgiving really came and went without any fanfare this year.

(our super sad meal on Thanksgiving because Cindy didn’t have an appetite and because we were leaving on our trip the next day and didn’t want any leftover food)

Even though the holiday didn’t feel special this year, we did have some very sweet moments throughout the week.

Jake’s brothers came to hang out for a day. Everyone is so busy these days, it’s always special when all four brothers get to hang out together.

We took a nice family stroll on Thanksgiving Day and enjoyed the quiet & emptiness of the city… even though it felt a bit apocalyptic.

And we took a very nice trip up to Atascadero with Cindy’s family. It was a very belated 60th birthday trip for Cindy’s mom. We stayed in a beautiful vineyard estate that sat on the top of a hill overlooking the Santa Lucia mountains. We went apple picking and checked out the Field of Light exhibit at Sensorio. Even though traveling with a toddler is not easy, the weekend was surprisingly peaceful and relaxing.