A different kind of Thanksgiving

This year, as many of you already know, Jesse and I did not go home for Thanksgiving. Instead we decided to go on vacation with Matt and Heidi (so we were still technically with family during the holidays) to New York!  We had this planned far in advance, and I could. not. wait. I was SO very excited about this trip, and now that we've returned I can say the city definitely lived up to my expectations. We had an amazing time.

But before I talk more about that, I'd like to share the Thanksgiving we did have.  Our community group leaders, Mike and Kelsey, decided to host Thanksgiving lunch on the Sunday before Thanksgiving for everyone. They cooked the turkey (and a couple other dishes) and asked that we each bring a side dish. Between all of us we had quite the spread - including dressing, two sweet potato casseroles, Chris's now famous corn dish, and several others.

I was so glad we did this, because we still got to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal, and the best part is that it truly felt like family.  Even with Kelsey's parents in town and helping out, it didn't feel like we were jumping into their Thanksgiving. Sitting around with a table full of friends, some of which we didn't even know a whole year ago still seemed like a close-knit family.  We also went around and told something we were thankful for from the past year. And there is SO much to be thankful for, especially in just the situations and families present at the table that day. (We were still missing several people from the group, though.) And it was a sweet feeling to know that we have all been present in each other's lives to help see each other through sad and happy times this year.  Of course we did miss our real families during the holidays.  I think they've forgiven us for skipping out. ;)

Stay tuned for posts about our trip!  I've been getting pictures ready to share and trying to decide how to go about sharing - there's so much to talk about!