For 15 years now, my mom begins looking for houses to rent in Michigan for next year’s Thanksgiving as soon as the current Thanksgiving weekend has passed. Needless to say, a pandemic was the farthest thing from any of our minds after Thanksgiving 2019.

As we faced the ninth month of restrictions and Covid-related guidelines, we had a decision to make. Do we travel to Michigan and spend our favorite holiday of the year with family, or do we heed the statewide emergency alert on our phones warning us to stay home? Typically, I am a rule-follower; however, this decision was a no-brainer. It was Michigan or bust.

Jake and Tiffany joined us Wednesday night (more about that in a forthcoming post), and boy did it feel good to be all together as a family, my parents included! Thursday morning carried on the Giere Classic 5K tradition.

It’s hard to believe this was our 7th annual race. Jim added some excitement to the event by bringing out the drone. My cousin’s little guy was hooked.

The start!

For dinner, since Grandpa Barker was not able to join us in person, he prayed for the meal over speaker phone from his assisted living residence a couple miles away. We missed him greatly.

Ruth commented on the irony of our dinner napkins. Wait. Gather? Or don’t gather?

We played games throughout the weekend.

And ate a lot.

A fun addition to the weekend was musical instruments. Not only did we pack the dog and her bed, our luggage, and food, but also filled the car top carrier with a guitar, a bass, and a keyboard. That poor car was quite loaded down. But the instruments made for some fun.

Friday we went outside and took a big family picture. It was controlled chaos. This was us trying to stay in place while Jim set up the camera.

The Fab Four.

Later that evening we celebrated kids’ birthdays from the entire year,

with a memory game and gift cards to cap it off. Who knew a $5 Chick-fil-A gift card could be so precious?

We packed, cleaned, and checked out of the house on Saturday, then said goodbye to Jake and Tiffany. It’s always hard to say goodbye.

We stopped by Aunt Chris’s to take care of a couple tasks that required muscles,

then made a quick visit to the beach so Peter could fly the drone a bit.

Buds.

Before driving home, we crashed at my brother’s house for some football and turkey goulash. This picture depicts well how we all felt after an action-packed, food-filled weekend. We left with full hearts, enjoying the extended time with one another.

We ended up getting a few inches of snow a couple days before Thanksgiving. In a matter of minutes, Ruth looked out the window, threw on winter clothes and began making a snowman.

She added a message for Derek and Alyssa, who were returning to our house from a morning workout.

The title was nearly an alliteration success, but try as I might, I could not find a word beginning with an ‘s’ sound for drama.

November kicked off with a memorable election. Ruth finished her U.S. Elections unit study just in time to join me as I did my civic duty and voted. I talked through the entire process as I filled in the circles.

Peter got to meet Jim Cornelison, the man who sings the national anthem for the Blackhawks. Jim visited Wheaton Academy and sang for the school one day, and surprisingly, Peter was one of only a handful of students who stayed back to meet him. Regardless of what others think, he is a celebrity in our household!

Jeremy’s bird house is drawing the curiosity of the local squirrels.

Ruth learned about the layers of the earth. What better way to drive home the concept than with food?

This girl definitely does not mind getting her hands messy. She was quite eager to get her hands into the chocolate.

After the earth model dried, we cut into it and ate.

After several months of writing and practicing, the neighborhood crew performed The Lonely Princess, written by Ruth. It was quite a story, and at one point caused all the watching parents gathered in the backyard to gasp.