American Thanksgiving at it finest!

Judy and I made the 12 hour drive from Frostproof, up to Johnson City, Tennessee yesterday in fine fashion. The weather was a bit wet to start, but turned out very nice. In the afternoon traffic picked up a bit, but we managed just fine. It was nice driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains as we headed through North Carolina into Tennessee.

We arrived just after 7:00 p.m. last evening, just in time to spend the evening. The surprise was, it actually snowed here overnight! We had mabe an inch and a half on the ground this morning. Not too often it snows here, so we kind of hit the lottery.

Now this morning, we were out the door by 7:45, in time to get downtown Johnson City, and take part in the 9th Annual Turkey Trot! This is a Family Fun Run, and the Hollingers were all registered to participate. It is just a nice 5 Klm. run. Emmie and Paige were all set for it above... Emmie ran the course, while Paige rode in comfort in a running stroller that Dad pushed.

Four thousand people turned out for the run! A lot of people just walked the course, and Judy and I joined them. We finished the course in just over 45 minutes.

People came from over 23 other States, and some from Hawaii if you can believe it! Temperatures were just above freezing, just right for a fun run.

The Turkey!

Above, Emmie is showing off her Participation Medal! She did great, running the entire 5 klms. We all had a great time!

Now here is a silly picture for you... yes, that is Spider Man coming through your TV above... this morning, Emmie and I sat down and too in the Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV. It was pretty fun to watch, and the Spider Man Float was terrific. Heck, they even had the Rock Band "Kiss" performing! We watched the parade, right after we got out of the hot tub to get warmed up, after the fun run! Busy morning!

This afternoon Shawn had big plans for us all. He had to work at the Hospital this morning for a wee bit, to help out some babies, but made it home in the afternoon. He wanted to get the Christmas Tree up!

Some of these pics might be a little hard to see as they are backlit from the big living room windows. He wanted a tree that would "fit" in their great room. They got it!

Everything started out great, and looked like it was not going to be "toooooo" big...

It took a lot to fan out all the branches, and get it all looking good... it just got bigger and bigger! Shawn gave me some numbers regarding this tree... There are over 7,793 branches on this tree! It is 12 feet tall, and has 1,500 lights that, thankfully, were pre-installed on the tree!

This thing just kept growing...

Eventually we had to start climbing on things to be able to work on the tree...

The step ladder came out, but it was not quite tall enough....

This picture above is a view from the dining room, where Jenn prepared a fantastic Thanksgiving Dinner for us tonight!

Judy and Jenn put the finishing touches to the tree later this afternoon, and all that is left now is to decorate it! They were online this afternoon arranging for a bunch of new decorations for it! It is going to look great! Emmie and Paige said that Santa should have NO problem finding this tree on his run!

As I type, Jenn and Judy are preparing to head out just past 6:00 this evening, to take in some Black Friday Shopping Deals that are now starting this evening! Good luck to them! I am going to pass...

Tomorrow we are all off for Pidgeon Forge!

Till tomorrow...

 

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