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Breaking Bread with "Families"

The kids at Cincinnati's Roebling Bridge
Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday.  It falls into a lowly fourth place for major American holidays in my book.  Don;t get me wrong, I love spending time with family, and road tripping -which are actually two of my favorite things to do.  But I just always feel like there should be something more in Thanksgiving, aside from just eating.    To be honest, this probably all goes back to my inability to sit still, to which Thanksgiving requires much. And my childhood memories of Thanksgiving revolve around everyone sitting, and my inability to convince any family member to go " do things."

UNCG friends
Turkey Trot
But this year marked one of my favorite Thanksgiving weekends in recent memory.  To start, one of our great college friends, Katie, came to Asheville with her family.  She was nice enough to invite my family, plus some of our other UNCG family friends (The Wagners) who also live here, to have dinner.  It was amazing.  Seeing all of our kids (6 in all) playing together, and making merry was heart warming, and really made me feel so much gratitude for old friendships that have lasted 20 years.  Mostly, it makes me appreciate the grace that so many of my past friends have afforded me over the years. ( I was not the most chill dude when I was 20)...Family comes in many forms.

Then, per usual, we road tripped to Columbus Ohio, where we broke more bread with Jessica's sister, Dad,and family.  As always, it is great to be with them, and we even brought back an old Hodge family tradition of seeing a movie on Thanksgiving.  This year's edition was the phenomenal movie Wonder.  I cried like a child for an hour straight.  We ran the Turkey Trot, ate like kings, and took Noah shopping at his favorite shop (Tiger Tree), where he bought some stylish Andy Warhol shades...Family.


Noah, or Warhol?
After a few days, we made our way back home, but with a stop for the night in Cincinnati - where we spent a great evening with our great friends the Maneys and Manskes.  We ate a lot of pizza, watched the kids play hide and seek in the Embassy Suites elevators, almost crashed a wedding, and walked across the Roebling Bridge...Family.

So, overall, Thanksgiving lived up to the hype for me, as I wrapped up the week feeling incredibly grateful for all of my families.

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