We spent Thanksgiving week 2024 in Minneapolis with the kids and grandkids this year. It was a pretty swell time all packed into Isaac & Ricci's house on 31st Avenue. It was cold, we had a little snow, but there was plenty of food, snuggling with the dogs and new baby, and everyone lived to tell about it!
We drove up from Fort Wayne Tuesday, leaving around 8am (the Feipels drove separately a tad later). It's ~570 miles, and took us about 8 hrs, 45 minutes both going and returning. Mid-Tuesday morning was a nice time to get through Chicago, and once you're beyond that's it's a pretty easy-breezy trip. All interstate (or at least 4-lane) via Rt. 30, I-80/90, I-90, I-94, and then a couple blocks to the house. The bulk of miles are actually through Wisconsin (Janesville, Madison, Wis. Dells, Eau Claire), and I had no idea the Twin Cities are only like 25 miles inside the MN state line.
Once there we basically stuck around the house other than Wednesday night we all went to an NBA game between the Timberwolves and Sacramento Kings. That was pretty fun - especially for Caleb. We also did a group afternoon visit (Friday) to this awesome place called Can Can Wonderland (with a brewery attached next door). Otherwise there were visits to the park a couple blocks away (mostly for Caleb to play basketball), and walking or running along the Mississippi River 3 blocks the other way. Wednesday morning Drew and I ran the 2 1/2 miles past the University of Minnesota right downtown to U.S. Bank Stadium where the Vikings play.
As for food, we did order pizza the first night, but beyond that Jane had made some soup and chili and we had a couple breakfast casseroles (other than the morning Carrie went and bought everyone donuts!). For the meal Thursday we had all the usual fixins: turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stovetop, green bean casserole, corn casserole, rolls, and canned cranberry, with pumpkin pie for dessert. We were well fed and naturally I ate too much.
The house has a really small (I mean REALLY small kitchen), so we weren't able to sit at the table to eat, but instead we all gathered in the living room with our Thanksgiving feast. It worked out fine. And beyond that we had plenty of room. They have a nice basement with a large bedroom and even bigger area that is usually Isaac's office but was converted into the kids' sleeping area, as well as a large full bathroom. Upstairs has 3 bedrooms and a full bath too. For a fairly small house, it really did hold us all comfortably.
We returned home Saturday morning in 5°F temps and had another uneventful trip - though adding that extra hour going from the Central time zone to Eastern is not as nice as losing it on the way there.
Personally, I had a very nice and relaxing time. It was good to have everyone together, so special to see the older grandkids holding the new one, I enjoyed the basketball game and a couple chilly runs along the Mississippi, and I do have to say, I enjoy holding little Wynn. He is so peaceful, yet had already changed so much from just a month ago. I'm sure that will be even more pronounced as he gets older.
So, until Christmas, it is back to normal around here. I had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.
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