Thanksgiving looked a little different for us this year.
Instead of feasting with family and stress-peeling potatoes, we spent hours crossing a few hundred miles on I-80, powered by gas station coffee and questionable Spotify playlists. We met up with dear friends in Lincoln, ate some aggressively mediocre bar food, and (because nothing else was open), hit the casino. Pretty sure we all lost.
We were feeling some serious Thanksgiving FOMO. We missed our family. We missed our traditions. We missed the pecan pie...like REALLY missed the pecan pie. But...this year we chose something different, something that was just for us. We were determined to make the most of it.
No sleeping in. No 5 a.m. Black Friday hustle. We got our butts out of bed bright and early on Friday morning, bundled up like overcooked sausages, and headed down to one of our all-time favorite places, Memorial Stadium. There, we promptly froze our faces off watching Nebraska get their asses handed to them by the Iowa Hawkeyes AND the refs (the most frustrating tag team of all time).
Shoutout to Johnson (total rockstar!!!) and Lateef, who both showed up with grit and played with a ton of heart! 
The rest of the team couldn't quite mentally (or emotionally) recover from the series of terrible/missed calls that leveled the big red momentum on the field.
The rest of the team couldn't quite mentally (or emotionally) recover from the series of terrible/missed calls that leveled the big red momentum on the field.I'm honestly only venting here because, in the moment, it felt like THAT was what I'd traded my favorite holiday for...and it didn't feel worth it.
Turns out, I was wrong.
What I really gave it up for was the uninterrupted hours of one-on-one time with Brad on the drive to and from. It was the wildly off-key Christmas/Rap concert I performed from the passenger seat (he's so lucky to have me!). It was the late-night laughter with friends we don't see nearly enough. It was watching the Husker volleyball team play arguably their best game of the season in big red territory. Most importantly, it was new memories layered on top of old ones.
Somewhere between the ice-cold bleachers and the warm company, I got a little reality check: we LOVE hosting Thanksgiving! We love the chaos and the full house and the gravy spills and the extra pie (especially the extra pie). That tradition is ours, and we treasure it. Sometimes you need a detour to remember just how much the main road means to you.
We spent a good chunk of the long and torturous drive home dreaming up our Christmas plans. All the things we want to eat, the people we want to hug, and the memories we want to add to our bank of holidays past. We both felt it - that growing gratitude for the traditions we've built, the ones we're already looking forward to returning to next year.
Sooo no, we wouldn't change a thing about this wild little Thanksgiving remix. However, we do not plan to change things up again next year.
Sometimes you need a break to remember why you never wanted one in the first place.
