Just like last year, I went home for Thanksgiving last week. When I moved into my condo, I only moved 15 minutes across town from my parents, but I always planned on going home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I mean, home cooked meals and getting to hang out with the pets—nothing better than that.

Wednesday, November 23

I waited until the morning of to pack, but thankfully I’ve gotten better at packing because of our trips this year, and I was only going home for a few days so I didn’t need too much. We were staying home, so I could pack comfy clothes. I headed to my parents’ house around 1:30 p.m., and, of course, the dogs—Maggie and Lucy—were incredibly excited to see me. (And Stella the cat, too.)

I usually stay in on Thanksgiving Eve—I was never one to go out and run into people I went to high school with—but this year, Josh and I went to our first Springfield Thunderbirds game of the season. We ended up going to four games last season, and we were looking forward to going again this year.

Josh was going to meet me at the game right after he got out work, but he got out a bit early, so he stopped by my parents’ house to pick me up. We had gotten salad and pizza from a local pizza place in town, so he had a quick dinner before we were off to the game.

There’s a local classic rock radio station that I’ve been listening to for years—like since high school—and every year during the week of Thanksgiving, the morning show does a fundraiser called the Mayflower Marathon to benefit a food pantry in the city.

A bit of back story for those who are interested: They had been doing the fundraiser at the Basketball Hall of Fame for years but this year they were told there wasn’t enough capacity to hold it there, so the marathon needed a new home. They ended up partnering with the casino in the city as well as a bunch of other local organizations, including the T-Birds.

The marathon runs Monday morning to Wednesday morning, and that night, it was Mayflower Marathon night at the game. The two hosts dropped the puck before the game, and there were raffles to win jerseys and corn hole sets out on the concourse.

A fun fact: On our second date, Josh and I found out that we both listen to the classic rock station’s morning show, and I think we were both surprised we found someone else who listened to the podcasts as much as we did.

Ever since we went to our first game last October, we always get tickets in the same seats. Since it was the night before Thanksgiving, the stands weren’t too filled, and we didn’t have a ton of people around us, which was nice.

The T-Birds ended up losing 2–1 to the Hersey Bears. We still don’t quite know what’s going on most of the time, but the games are fun to go to.

After the game, we walked back to the casino where we parked in the garage, and since we didn’t want to go home quite yet, we got another round of beers on the casino floor. I hadn’t been there for drinks since pre-COVID—like January 2020—and it makes for good people-watching. Josh dropped me back at my parents’ house around 11:00 p.m.

This was the ever-so-glamorous sleeping arrangement I had, sleeping on an air mattress in my old bedroom that is now part WFH space for my dad and part home gym. The OG air mattress that I had last summer when I moved into my condo died last Christmas, so my parents got a new one for me to use when I stay over. I had to keep the door shut while I was there so Lucy didn’t get there and steal stuff she shouldn’t have… like sneakers, socks, or clothes.

Thursday, November 24

I got up after 8:00 a.m. and almost got trampled by Lucy, who seemed to have forgotten I stayed over. I made myself a coffee and had my typical Thanksgiving breakfast of cinnamon buns before sitting down to watch the Macy’s parade.

Keeping with the tradition, I broke out The Dip around 11:00 a.m. and watched the end of the parade before watching some of the dog show. After I ate lunch, I played ball with Lucy out in the backyard in an attempt to tire her out, but it didn’t work.

The Lions and Bills were the 1:00 p.m. football game that day, and I forgot what it’s like to watch football with my mom. She’ll either ask a lot of questions or make witty comments; she didn’t like the Lions’ uniforms because they “look like leotards with all of that gray.” There was also a safety in that game, and when she saw the refs doing the hand symbol for it, she said, “They did the A in the YMCA.”

My Giants were taking on the Dallas Cowboys at 4:30 p.m., so that meant we watched it during dinner, since we eat around 5:00 p.m. (I also made sure we didn’t miss The Jonas Brothers performing at halftime.)

After dinner, we took the pups for a walk around the block before watching the prime-time football game of the Patriots vs. the Vikings and having some snacks.

Friday, November 25

I got up around 8:00 a.m. since my dad had to work and he needed my sleeping quarters to work from home. Lucy, again, acted like she hadn’t seen me before when I walked into the kitchen.

I packed up and went back to my condo after 1:00 p.m., before meeting my parents for date night dinner later on that night. When I got back home, I put away everything and planned my meals for this week since I was going grocery shopping on Saturday. I also laid on the couch and watched a few episodes of Dynasty before meeting up with my parents.

I’ll be heading back home for Christmas and sleeping on the air mattress again in my old bedroom. The home-cooked meals are worth it, though.