For me, Thanksgiving involves being stressed, cooking too much food, eating too much food while the football game plays in the background and watching about a million commercials about black friday sales and then people going to black friday sales and being trampled to death to save a few dollars.

The early thanksgivings started because the Pilgrims were thankful when they had a good harvest. They would gather all the food they had been growing and store it for the winter. They got some turkeys, the Indians brought some deer and they had a three-day feast celebrating their health, friendship, good harvest, and being thankful to God for getting them through another year.

“By autumn of 1621, the Pilgrims had much for which to be thankful. After the harvest, Massasoit and about ninety other Indians joined the Pilgrims for the great English tradition of HARVEST FESTIVAL. The participants celebrated for several days, dining on venison, goose, duck, turkey, fish, and of course, cornbread, the result of a bountiful corn harvest. This tradition was repeated at harvest time in the following years.”

I just feel like we’re missing the point.

I want Thanksgiving to be a day where we enjoy being with each other. Where friends and family can come together and cook food together without stressing out. Where families don’t spend the day bickering or drinking too much. Where football isn’t the most important thing and where you don’t get bombarded by thousands of black friday commercials. Where saying what your thankful for at the table before the meal isn’t just a habit and I can blurt out I’m thankful for this stuffing…  really did that yesterday.

But seriously. Are we really thankful? I feel like Thanksgiving is just a gateway to black friday and the rest of the Christmas insanity.  I guess I’m just disenchanted. I want my own thanksgiving. with my own family. one that involves people who actually like spending time together. people who enjoy being around each other. who like cooking together. who like playing games. who aren’t rude, condescending, sarcastic. My dream family is so different from the family that i have. How un thankful am I?

Maybe we just need to take a step back. Maybe we need to reevaluate how we’re spending this day. It should be about spending time with the people we do life with. Sharing with others around us. Being generous. Helpful. Loving. Expressing our thanks for the people in our lives who are there for us. Who are important to us. Being thankful to God for the harvest. Or at least for the fact that we have more than enough food to get us through the winter. Maybe we should spend time thinking about people who are less fortunate than us. Maybe we should donate a turkey. Or make a meal for someone else. Or invite a family to join us who might not be able to make their own meal. Or give pies to homeless people on the street.

Maybe it’s about being around the table. Maybe the tv isn’t on. And we aren’t thinking about shopping. Maybe the being thankful part isn’t a rushed time before the meal while we’re secretly hoping the food isn’t getting cold. I feel like we get things so upside-down here. We think the wrong things are important while we forget about the things that really matter.

Maybe it’s time to turn some things around.

I am from bunk beds, from old furniture and messy piles

I am from the farmhouse

I am from the woods, bay windows, porch swings and open fields

I am from foggy windows, family dinners, from DiMartinos, Avilas and Smiths

I am from loud dinner tables, Italian cookies and Red Sox

From I will never be enough and I will always love you

I am from Jesus

I’m from New York, from pizza and pasta with homemade sauce

From the “drive safe”s, the “goodnight I love you”s, and the “ok then”s

I am from the organized, the clean, the messy and disorganized

From frosting, shrimp cocktail and crackers & cheese

From the sacrificial, hard working, determined and loving

This is where I am from

It’s a foggy, cold morning. Fall is slowly creeping into Asheville. A few trees outside my window have already succumbed to his grip and are oozing out burgundy and burnt orange. I woke up at 6 am. It’s better than yesterday when I woke up at 4. Jet lag is the worst. I finished editing my pictures for the first part of the trip, and by 10am I’m on my second Chemex of coffee.

There are so many memories and things to remember from the trip. 28 days jam-packed with driving, sight-seeing, and exploring. We left the US on September 7th, my birthday. Our flight was overnight to Dublin and we arrived at 5am local time. After picking up the smallest of rental cars, we drove to Gort, a town near Galway. Driving on the wrong side of the car, wrong side of the road and shifting with the wrong hand is certainly a challenge, but I think I did a pretty good job. Nothing in Gort was open, and we ended up at a hotel for most awkward and quiet breakfast of all time. The dining room was ornate, wooden, regal, and silent. Large wooden chairs and heavy tables dotted the room with elderly couples sitting scattered throughout. Despite the room containing roughly 10 other people, it was completely silent.

The waitress asked us what we wanted, but hadn’t given us menus. We asked what they had and she said whatever you want. We stammered out some foods that normally are associated with breakfast…eggs, bacon, toast, coffee, and stared at her questioningly. What do you order when someone says you can have whatever you want? And on 0 hours of sleep after having traveled for the past 15 hours. She nodded and shortly brought out our very “American” breakfasts. We ate quickly in the silence, contacted our host and waited for her to come to the hotel so we could follow her back to the house.

The Life of Reilly Lodge was a converted garage with a loft bedroom upstairs and a kitchen and bathroom downstairs. It is in a cow pasture basically, so the cows walk right up to the downstairs windows.

Teresa is amazing and pleasant and made us the most delicious scones. So sweet. After a much-needed power nap, we showered and piled into our tiny car to go to the Cliffs of Moher on the western coast of Ireland. It was about an hour and a half drive, but on the way we came across ruins of an old monastery with a huge tower and amazing graveyard so of course we had to stop and check it out. Another couple from New Jersey was there and they had gotten the keys to the church somehow and offered to let us walk around with them to see inside of the church and other buildings.

Back in the car we continued on the way too small and winding roads to Clare. The Cliffs of Moher were beautiful and even though it was so windy the sun kept us warm on our trek to the top. Our first views of Ireland were certainly stunning.

Back at our apartment we slept for 12 hours. What an amazing feeling. I woke up first and made coffee and looked out over the rolling Irish countryside. Spoke with the cow outside the window, chatted with Theresa for a bit and then we were off to Galway. We sat at a French Cafe for a while just soaking in the sunshine and enjoying our coffee, then walked around the town stopping in a few bookshops to pursue the used books. The afternoon took us to the Galway Horse Races where we joined hundreds of other spectators watching the horses run the track, cheering for the winners and even bet on a horse.

Our next house was in Kells Bay. The beach was so beautiful and the mountainous scenery surprised and delighted us. We drove to Dingle from Kells Bay, the pouring rain and narrow waterlogged roads made the journey much longer than it should have been. The hedge rows radiated with fuchsia and orange flowers spilling over into the road. Blackberry bushes and ferns added to the colorful hues. The coastal sea town of Dingle was adorable. Through pouring rain we made our way to a small coffee shop called Bean in Dingle, decorated with greys and yellow and looked very much like many of our coffee shops in America.  The damp chill in the air hovered over the town but we managed to explore and find some amazing little shops, pubs and most of all Murphy’s Ice Cream. Yum.

Dingle. Kells Bay. Cork. Ardfield.  With a sporadic trip to Blarney Castle thrown in between.

In Cork we had the amazing experience of going to Church with the Freece’s. Missionaries we have supported for most of our lives. Seeing the church we have prayed for and being able to interact with the people there was such a sweet experience.

After Cork we stayed in Wexford, visited the beach from Saving Private Ryan, and then went on to Howth. A fishing town right next to Dublin. It was a beautiful sunny day and we spent most of the day outside on the pier. Watching seals and birds, eating fish & chips, listening to street musicians and exploring the little city.

After Howth our tour of Ireland was done. So crazy to think the first leg of our journey was already done. We went back to the Dublin airport and flew to London for our next adventure!

And so our trip begins. Asheville to Greenville, Chicago, Newark, New York City, Dublin, Gort, Cliffs of Moher, and back to Gort What a long and exhausting two days of travel. Sitting in airports for so many hours brings much opportunity for people watching. People watching always makes me ask questions. I wonder about the people. Where they are going. What their lives are like.

Why are there so many women in stilettos? Can you imagine running around an airport, dragging luggage in stilettos? Why is that child screaming? Why can some men wear pink shirts and some clearly can not? Why are there so many people here today? Why isn’t there any good food? Why does almost everyone have those weird neck pillows? Seriously? That’s now a necessity for travel?

Also why do people watch tv or football games or movies without their headphones in? How rude is this? I don’t want to sit next to you and hear your football game over the music I am listening to WITH MY HEADPHONES. RUDE. Why do people go to the bathroom so many times? You never in real life go to the bathroom every hour do you? No

I thought I had an empty row but I ended up with one other woman who was obviously not having a great day. She went to the bathroom probably 7 times during our one hour flight and kept putting all her stuff on the tray table of the middle seat and then moving it back to her tray table. Back and forth. She also kept trying to send text messages. Which clearly you’re not supposed to do and DOESNT work from 30,000 feet. Sorry lady.

No one looks happy in airports. Everyone is tired, or late, or frustrated, or too busy to give you the time of day. A lady walked right into me because she was texting, and I said I was sorry when clearly it was her fault. She didn’t even acknowledge the collision. How do people travel with babies? I don’t understand that. I don’t think I ever could. Car seat, stroller, diaper bag, baby, baby’s toys, your own carry on…

Dazed and confused people wandering the ever-changing hallways of the busy airport. A guy practices his golf swing as he walks past me. Another man is wearing a t-shirt with minions on it and he’s clearly too old for that. A woman with one shoe hobbles past. What happened to her other shoe? How do you lose your shoe? Kids with bags that are as big as they are. Another child is crying. Traveling is exhausting. I can’t imagine doing it as a child. A man carrying a strange triangular case passes. I wonder what’s inside. A tall man. A woman with tall hair. Long dreads. Short pixie cut.

I guess you can see every type of person if you sit in an airport long enough. By tomorrow I’ll be in Ireland. And these questions won’t matter. But today, I’m writing them down as questions that need to be asked.

Second adventure of the week was to Nashville! Only 4 days after my sister moved to Nashville, Brighton and I were headed there ourselves. Brighton signed up to be an extra in the movie that the Story of God is helping with, and they wanted him to come the next day! I drove back to Asheville from Chapin to pick him up and we headed to Nashville late Tuesday evening.

Everyone was at the movie set 12-15 hours a day so Kimberly, Elouise & I spent a lot of time exploring on our own. Since she just moved there she is still figuring out where things are. We explored downtown Nashville, visiting Barista Parlor, Flip Burger, and an Italian Grocery store.

In Smyrna, where they live, we went to a local coffee shop, a farmer’s market, and we took Elouise to story time at a library.

It was a quick trip, but we had a great time. It was cool to hear about the movie and all of the SOG team’s experiences on set. They are living quite the adventure!

This week had two adventures! So crazy but so fun! At the beginning of the week I drove to Chapin, SC to see one of my best friends, Kayce. I hadn’t seen her for 3 years and it was so great to catch up. We stayed at her mom’s lake house and went out on the boat, swam in the lake, cooked dinner, watched movies and stayed up late.

It was such a relaxing retreat and an amazing time getting to know her three beautiful children as well as spend great quality time with a family that I have loved for most of my life.

Kayce and I became friends in 3rd grade. Her family moved to Phoenix AZ when we were in 5th grade and they would come back to visit NY in the summers. So we were pen pals. We wrote letters to stay in touch and we spent as much time together as possible every summer.

We marveled at the fact that our friendship has lasted for so many years despite the fact that we have lived so far apart for the past 20 years. Love you Kayce!