Thanksgiving.

To my surprise, and happiness, AJ flew back to Illinois on Thanksgiving Day. So what did we do to celebrate another weekend together?

I picked AJ up from the airport around 1:30 and we headed straight to his parents' house, since we missed the festivities at Aunt R's place. We had a good time catching up with his family before heading to my grandparents' farm for Thanksgiving dinner. My grandfather cooked an amazing spread, as always. This year he and my cousin took it upon themselves to cook nine pumpkin pies, including a whole pie for AJ and me to take home. The night included a big game of Apples to Apples for us younger folks, during which AJ and I discovered we're starting to think way too much alike. Towards the end of the night, my maid of honor and I planned out our first tattoo, which will hopefully be happening before I leave the country in January. Yep, this woman is soon to be inked! Like just about everyone else in my generation, of course.

Friday was a pretty chill day for us. Because we had no food aside from Thanksgiving leftovers, AJ treated us to a delicious breakfast at a local restaurant. They have the best black coffee I've ever had, and adding cream or sugar would be a crime. Which my husband did, of course. We came back to Aunt L's house for a little bit while I struggled to finish a paper. Soon enough I had given up, so we headed to my parents' house to recruit my little sister for a game of Scrabble. Which I won, fair and square. ;)

On Friday night we saw my family again at my youngest cousin's birthday party. It was a nice visit before we headed up to the city for a special date, just the two of us. These days when we're together we like to treat ourselves to a stay downtown just to do something special and make some memories. Let me tell you, we're going to be hotel connoisseurs before we know it. Anyway, it was great to get away and feel totally alone in a different place together. All the same, I told AJ that when we actually have our own place again I'm never going to want to leave. 

The next morning we had breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts (yes, we come all the way to the Loop for coffee and breakfast sandwiches available anywhere else) and headed for the aquarium, someplace we love but haven't been to in years. We saw nearly everything there was to see and had a great time. We visited with AJ's parents again that night before returning to Aunt L's place. It's become a habit for us to watch a movie on our last night together, because it's easy to do even if you're feeling sad about saying goodbye to your spouse the next day. Last night we were still feeling inspired from our visit to the aquarium, so we watched our favorite episode of Blue Planet. If there's one thing we've learned by now, it's how to get really good at saying goodbye. When you do it a lot, you learn the tricks of how to make it less painful and how to avoid having expectations of your last few hours together. Believe it or not, there are Army resources out there just giving advice on saying goodbye. But in the end, nothing compares to how it felt when I drove away from our home together alone, knowing I'd never be back. No doubt about it, the Army has a habit of forcing you to be tough when you don't think you can.


So, AJ left again today. We stopped at an oasis close to the airport for a romantic last lunch together--Panda Express, of course. After one last kiss goodbye (no tears!) I was on my way with just the voice of NPR to keep me company.