Thanksgiving 2014: Kentucky Living

The four days of Thanksgiving vacation always seem to go by in a blur. Jeremy, my mom and I are usually the first to arrive to our Thanksgiving house that becomes home to three generations of family. We always strive to rent a large home for the weekend; one that accommodates enough room for everyone but somehow the house we choose always seems to shrink as each family begins to arrive. Big house or small, I am beyond grateful that we are able to come together as our family from Illinois, Missouri, Nashville and North Carolina call Kentucky home for the last weekend of November.

This year our home was in Jamestown, a city in Kentucky that can't make up it's mind if it's on Central Time or Eastern Time. Even sitting side by side, our phones would read differently. I'm not sure we ever really knew what time it was. It was because of this time change (and 2 hour drive) that we missed our annual tradition of our 5K Turkey Trot in Williamsburg at Cumberland College. We also missed our chance at taking home their awesome pies that winners get to claim. Even with this mishap, we decided to run our own 5K. Okay, okay, maybe it was a mile run....but we ran and it was great. We even bought ourselves some pie in our efforts to keep the tradition going. Yep. Only my family. I love it!

This sums up how I feel about Thanksgiving

While we were running, the cooks were in the kitchen hard at work. I joined shortly after to help deliver an amazing feast that seems to get better each year. We decided to fry the turkey this year and I doubt we'll ever go back to baking it in the oven. It was SO good. So, so good.

The next afternoon, we got some fresh air as we hiked along Lake Cumberland at the Kentucky State Park. We saw gorgeous views as we passed by local hikers and wondered how we would get back to our car. We eventually made it to the road while we made a detour that wasn't really a part of the hiking trail. We made it home safe and sound, ready to eat. Again.

Cousins. We tried recreating the photo above but failed at the order....next year!

And just like that, Thanksgiving was over. Our suitcases were packed and we raided the fridge of any food that was left over. We said our goodbyes with 2015 on our minds, excited to get back to the state that unites us next year!