Thanksgiving 2019

Beck is allowed on furniture at Nene's

This year for Thanksgiving, we drove up to Peoria to spend time with Nene and Poppy.  We left on Sunday morning, and drove all day.  Nene had a great dinner waiting on us, so we ate and got settled.  Monday morning, we went to visit Dad.  He was pretty sleepy, and we doubted he really knew we were there.  We took him for "rides" around the nursing home though, and spoke to him and other tenants.  He had brief moments of clarity where he would open his eyes and smile.  That afternoon we hit one of my favorite lunch spots, Avanti's, and then hit a liquor store where Steve loaded up on bourbon.  That night, we laid low and worked on a puzzle that we bought.

Tuesday morning, we went to visit Dad earlier in hopes that he would be more awake for us.  He was slightly more awake and had definite moments where he seemed to know we were there.  He even caught Steve's face, and called him by name and asked about "the game."  The kids were all great with him, hugging him, telling him that they loved him and trying to engage him in conversation.  There were definitely tears from us, but they all seemed to genuinely enjoy being there and with him (regardless of his condition).  That afternoon we went to see the Mr. Rogers movie.  Steve and I seemed to enjoy it the most, but it was a slow movie with a limited audience.  That night we went to Alexander's Steak House, and had another delicious meal.

Wednesday morning we got up and went to nursing home again.  Dad had a great day, and stayed awake during our entire two hour visit.  He laughed, smiled and cried some when the kids and I hugged on him (which made me think he knew we were there and could feel the love).  Brian and his family arrived in town around his lunch, and stayed for awhile, so we left.  Dad definitely does better with smaller groups or one on one.

That night our whole family went to Agatucci's for pizza!  Then the Sprenger family came over to visit with us for awhile.  It was a late night, but a fun one.

Thanksgiving morning, we split our time with Dad with Brian and Shannon up first.  Our family arrived a little after 10am, and he was alert and enjoying his snack.  He was hanging out with his former roomie, Gene.  

Poppy is very loved, with Gene Waller

He was very tearful.  Preston asked if it was the last time he would see Poppy, and I told him I didn't know when we would be back.  It was a tough visit on all of us.

When we got back to Nene's, we finished prepping our meal.  Then Shannon took some pictures of the kids and us (for our xmas card).  We worked on the puzzle more, and just hung out and enjoyed our time together.  We had a great meal (thanks to Shannon), and all went around the table saying what we were thankful for this year.

It was nice to have the family together, definitely fun for the kids.  It was sad that Dad couldn't be with us enjoying one of his favorite meals of the year, but I pray that he knew we were all there and love him dearly.  Mom does a great job loving on him daily, but he needs to know we all love him too.  Thanks for being a great hostess mom - hopefully our visit with enjoyable for you too.