"Not" First Memories

We celebrated our first holiday with family in Glenlochan and today is the first day in a full week that hasn't involved overeating, game-playing, and good fun.  In fact, for most of us, it was a day of travel headaches and delays whether at the airport or on the highways (some are still making their way home and safe travels to everyone).

Although I have been looking forward to making our first memories in the house over the Thanksgiving holiday I realized this week that we weren't making our first memories at all.  We may not have realized it at the time, but there were so many memorable moments in the demo and rebuild of the house over the last 2.5 years.  From this:

 To this:

We made memories at every stage of the project and this week we made more.  As we enjoyed the house, the piles of remaining work were never far from our minds - the unfinished items were hard to avoid in each and every room (still no written punch list).  But, Thanksgiving provided a temporary hiatus and we tried not to look at the unpainted trim, the still unfilled nail holes, the fireplace slate not yet tiled in, and on and on and on.

Instead we focused on adding to our already budding collection of memories.  Thanksgiving almost didn't happen in Glenlochan due to a blocked sewer line at the road (discovered first thing Thanksgiving morning when the toilets started making ominous bubbling sounds) but thanks to the quick responses from the sanitation department on a holiday no less, the line was unblocked without any delay to the holiday festivities.  Thank you Hampton Roads Sanitation! 

From fresh baked bread (made by Rob), to beautifully set tables (courtesy of Ashley and Tereasa!) to frosting cookies, and everything else in between (not pictured, the many highly competitive games of Train Dominoes) it was a fantastic first holiday:

 Happy Thanksgiving!