A Tennessee Thanksgiving

This year my family went to my Aunt and Uncle's place in TN for Thanksgiving.  I believe it was the first time I was out of my home state for Thanksgiving, and it was the first year my aunt had not come to her home state for Thanksgiving since she got married, thirty some years ago.  I think that is why I enjoyed our Thanksgiving in TN so much: Because Aunt Rita got to stay home for the day.

Due to having a year full of deaths, hardships and disappointments, I was having a challenging time choosing to be thankful for much of anything.  Somewhere in KY, heading down the interstate, my attitude changed.   Here is how it happened:

We were in the far left lane of the three -lane, southbound interstate. All of a sudden, mom (driving) allarmingly said "Oh my! Oh no! Greg . . . Where do I go?! Oh no! Oh dear Lord!" I looked to my right and saw we were parallel with semi truck which was pushing a little four-door car, which was headed east and west. The smell of rubber filled the air.  Mom applied the breaks, as did the semi.  The car drove in front of us, into the grass separating the north and south interstate, hit the guard cables, threw grass and dirt onto the north bound lane, bounced back and stopped in the grass.  Mom pulled off, and she and dad got out to help the couple.  Passing vehicles had slowed down. The semi pulled off, as did two or three other cars.  Dad called 911, while I stood by our van and watched as the husband and wife got out of the car, and mom went to be of help.  Within minutes the ambulance was there; thankfully everyone was fine. Soon two fire trucks showed up, along with four police/sheriff cars.  We gave our account of what happened, mom hugged the wife, and headed on our way.

I had many things to be thankful for after witnessing a car accident. 

And now for pictures of my Thanksgiving in Tennessee:

Natasha learning the accordion while my Aunt Rita and Uncle Bruce watch.

The weather was so nice that we all went to a park, built like a castle. Natasha loved it!  There was a little stage and Natasha put on such a cute performance, singing "Christmas is Coming" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star".

Front row (L-R): me, Janel, Natasha, Mom  Back Row (L-R): Aunt Rita (mom's sister), Rachal, Jennifer, and Rebecca (cousins)

One evening after cooking hot dogs over a bonfire, we sat around in Aunt Rita and Uncle Richard's barn, and played music while talking with Jason and Josh on Skype.  Aunt Rita invited a "cowboy" (as she called him) over because he was not going home for Thanksgiving.  Clinton (the cowboy) played the guitar and Indian flute (not at the same time), James and Rachal (my cousins) played keyboards, mom and Jennifer played flute and alto flute, Josh played the bango (over skype) and I played the violin.

Over all it was a wonderful time! I could have spent the whole month down there.  There's something that southern states have that northern states lack.  Can I be from the north, yet have those southern graces?