We were lucky enough to host Thanksgiving in Alexandria this year. With Carolyn’s crew back on the East Coast, Northern Virginia is once again a “good, sort of in-between and convenient to travel to” location for the holiday weekend. The Clays road tripped from Rhode Island, the Wiktors flew from St. Paul and one Mumsie drove from Bassett bringing the total to 14 for Thanksgiving weekend!

After many years of Thanksgiving preparations, I feel like I have the Turkey day prep pretty dialed in. I really enjoy all the planning and cooking leading up to the meal and this year was no exception. I have a few tried and true recipes on repeat with different variations of the classic each year. I had some help with the pie (Mike) and rolls (Whole Foods – ha!) so that was a big help as well.

Thomas’s birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year so in addition to pumpkin pie and apple crisp there was also a giant donut included in the dessert spread. And as if two celebrations weren’t enough, we pulled of a small surprise birthday celebration for Kathy’s 70th the next day! More family joined for an evening of pizza and cake to celebrate Mumsie!

On Saturday, Carolyn’s family headed north to get ahead of the holiday traffic. We took advantage of the sunny but crisp fall day and walked the National Mall with the St. Paul crew. Sophia was hoping we could luck out and get passes to go to the top of the Washington Monument. While that didn’t pan out, the National Park Ranger was kind enough to share a lesser known option with us. The Old Post Office Tower is part of the NPS and doesn’t require reservations. Not quite the panoramic view of the Mall that the Washington Monument provides, but still pretty beautiful. There’s a small museum detailing the history of the building before you take the tower elevator up to the observation deck. It was cool to read about the history of the building. While most days the list of things I like about living in the DMV is pretty short, weekends like these fill my cup and remind me to feel grateful to call this place our home for now.