I'm guessing that my parents never thought that their kids would end up living in Kentucky or New Jersey. It certainly wasn't on my fifth-grade MASH line-up. But somehow my big brother and I both flew the coup away from our beloved hometown in the Texas panhandle, both 1000+ miles (err... 2000 miles) away from our little white-bricked home on Elmhurst Road and no closer to one another.
Ryan is a second-year anesthesiology resident at the University of Louisville and, as such, spends nearly every day and night scrubbed up putting patients to sleep and, more importantly, waking them back up. This Thanksgiving he actually had the holiday off so we (lost our minds and) decided to carpe diem! and make the 28-hour round trip to Louisville with our toddler.
After surviving the winding mountain roads in the dark and fog from New Jersey to Pennsylvania to West Virginia to Ohio to Kentucky, we finally introduced our daughter to my brother and his sweet wife, Ashley. Mary Allison took no time to stick Uncle "Ay-an's" stethoscope in her ears and uncover her Christmas presents that Aunt Ashley had already wrapped. She quickly befriended their "woof-woof," Benson, with her sticky fingers, neck hugs and open-mouthed kisses. Our days were filled with good meals and even better desserts, parks and museums, baby-dolls and magna-doodles, family lore and many more reasons to be grateful for our Hogue reunion.
My dad said it best as he said grace over our Thanksgiving meal. "We are grateful to gather together today and pray that we would be blessed with many more opportunities to gather again."
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| They should be AARP models, amiright?!? |
Happy Thanksgiving!
b + c + m
