Hi friends! Matt, the kids and I are back home after a fun Thanksgiving trip to Massanutten, Virginia, which is about 2.5 hours southwest of the DC area.
We spent the holiday this year with Matt’s family (his parents, his older brother Chris and his wife Jess and their 3 boys, and his younger brother Drew and his wife Morgana). With all the grandkids in the mix these days Matt’s parent’s house in Pittsburgh is too tight for everyone to stay together, so we went the rental house route instead!
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Matt’s parents found the Massanutten area and figured it would be a good in between-ish spot for everyone to converge, especially as it’s close to a lot of hiking, and there’s also a big indoor waterpark there which we knew the kids would love.
We arrived on Wednesday evening, so our first full day together was Thanksgiving! Riese and Wes were thrilled to be with their cousins (all boys – 10, 8.5, and 4); it was so cute to see them all playing together.
Matt’s parents stayed back at the house and worked on our Thanksgiving feast (thank you!!) while the rest of us got the kids out for some fresh air in the form of a mid-morning hike at nearby Elk Run Trails.
We all had a nice time out there! Fresh air always helps my mood big time and especially with lots of energetic kids in the mix, it was crucial to get them out and about to get some energy out before sticking around the house for the big Thanksgiving meal later in the day.
Matt, the kids, and I arrived at the trail area before the cousin crew and Riese and Wes had fun sprinting all over this big field near the parking area while we waited for the others to get there to start our hike!
It was cold (but not crazy cold) and sunny which is my favorite for hiking, and the fall leaves were on point. Check out these huge leaves as big as everyone’s faces (that’s Riese, Wes, and my sister-in-law Morgana):
Wes refused to wear a coat but didn’t seem cold so I decided that wasn’t a battle I was going to fight…
The trail we took was about 2 miles which was just the right distance for the little ones. There was a big field with soccer goals at the trail start where we parked, and the big kids and Matt and his brothers had fun kicking the soccer ball around after our hike!
I didn’t participate in the soccer situation that day but I did the following day and had a blast trying to steal the ball from my 10 year old nephew… he’s gotten pretty good!
After our hike/soccer fun, we headed back home for lunch (we had some leftover lasagna from the night before and some veggies that I forgot to get a picture of), and then it was time for Wes to take his nap, the other kids to take a break with some TV, and for Matt to start the turkey!
We brought our oil-less infrared fryer with us for the occasion as usual and Matt injected the turkey with some cajun butter mixture (I don’t have details as I was not involved!) and also rubbed some spices on the outside of it before getting it in the fryer!
A couple hours later and it was ready to go – it came out beautiful!
We had a delicious meal – turkey (the skin was so good), sweet potatoes, smashed potatoes, string beans (my contribution – I kept it low key this year since with Matt doing the turkey I knew I’d be wrangling children), and rolls. We also had delicious pear and pecan salads to start!
I ended up going back for more turkey and gravy after this. We also had stuffing but as I’m not a fan I skipped that. 🙂
As part of our Thanksgiving feast, we also enjoyed some delicious wine Matt and I brought with us that came in our most recent Firstleaf wine club subscription box!
(FYI: this section of the post is sponsored by Firstleaf, and links to Firstleaf are affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission on any purchases.)
It has been fun to mix things up and try some new-to-us wines recently thanks to Firstleaf. You can read more about Firstleaf and how it works in my full review post from last month, but basically Firstleaf creates a custom taste profile for you based on your answers to their introductory quiz, then uses the results to recommend a box of six wines.
After you receive your box of wine, you rate and review the wines you receive and Firstleaf uses that information to further tailor your future wine deliveries, meaning each box you receive is even more likely to be filled with wines you’ll love.
Firstleaf makes the process of finding new and interesting wines super easy, and it was especially fun to have something special wine-wise to elevate our Thanksgiving meal (and appetizer spread, pictured below) this year!
If you’ve been considering giving Firstleaf a shot, now is the perfect time because they have an awesome sale going on right now – click here to get 6 bottles for $39.95 + 1 year free shipping (saves $250+ on member pricing)! The sale ends today, so don’t wait!
We rounded out our feast with some pies, of course – pumpkin chiffon pie and pecan pie. I went for the pumpkin, which is always my fave!
Another delicious Thanksgiving is in the books! I’ll share a bit more about the rest of our trip in Friday’s blog post – stay tuned.
Are you a stuffing fan? Am I the only one who doesn’t love it? 🙂
