Thanksgiving at the Ritz

Barrett & I went to the Ritz at Reynolds Plantation a few weeks ago for our anniversary and we loved it yet again.  And as we were leaving, the valet mentioned "You should come back on November 22nd when we light the lake for Christmas and Santa comes!"  He didn't have to give me too many details as I was booking the trip even before we were off their property - especially when I realized it was for Thanksgiving!

To be honest, this year has been hard!  Palmer has only come over for Barrett's birthday party and there is just so much drama having to deal with Stewart & Lindsay - who are still friends with Allison.  Sometimes when I hear people - or even I catch myself saying "We are a blended family" - that we are actually in a blender and people from everywhere are throwing all kinds of things into the blender to keep us from operating smoothly!  Anyway, the holidays are hard for us and when I mentioned to the children that we might be going out of town for Thanksgiving, Bonner immediately said "But, we won't be together with our family!"  I told her that I thought it would be better if we did something with them the weekend before Thanksgiving and then we were able to just be together the 4 of us at a fun place.  She completely agreed to that so that's what we did!  And it was worth it!

Saturday before Thanksgiving, we fried up a turkey and had my parents, Joyce, and her friend, Jane, over to eat a full Thanksgiving meal!  Unfortunately, Barrett's parents were sick so they didn't get to come.  I meant to get a picture with everybody, but you will just have to trust me that the food was cooked well and eaten up!

That meant on Wednesday around lunch, the 4 of us loaded up in the Rolls to head to the Ritz - we even got to take the dog with us!  Wednesday night, we enjoyed a wonderful concert outside on the front lawn - John Hopkins of the Zac Brown performed delightful Christmas tunes with the Atlanta Symphony!

And apparently, each year, Santa shows up in a secret way - one year, he apparently came by helicopter; one year, by boat; and even one year, by reindeer!  This year, he came in an ice cream truck which was awesome and he parked to get out right in front of us!

Thursday was Thanksgiving so we started with Breakfast in Bed!

And, then we honestly spent the rest of the day completely enjoying ourselves!  The Ritz is a beautiful property with so much to do - beside just swim in the lake or the pool!

They set up an ice skating rink which Bonner thoroughly enjoyed!

Everyone enjoyed a friendly game of Foosball!

Bonner enjoyed the swing and I enjoyed the fire out by the lake!

There was even an arcade that brought smiles to the crew!

& who doesn't love Cosmic golf? It was so cool - they set it up in a dark room and the balls light up!

And, of course, we all love an intense game - or five - of checkers!

Belle even got in on the relaxation - from standing guard outside our room to watching the annual Dog Show from the bed!

We didn't eat turkey on Thanksgiving - instead, we got all dressed up and headed to the steak house for a delicious piece of red meat!

After eating our dinner - which Ian did wish his steak was much bigger than 4 oz. - they brought cotton candy!  The day was terrific and the smiles were big throughout our time together!

We headed back on Friday and caught the late afternoon showing of Wreck It Ralph 2.  It was super cute and I was thankful to have such a drama-free Thanksgiving break with everyone I hold so dear.  The kids left Saturday morning after Thanksgiving and this was the first year that I didn't cry when they left!  Barrett knew I would be out of sorts for the rest of the weekend so he took good care of me!