Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving

This year we spent almost all of Thanksgiving week in Pennsylvania with my mom's entire side of the family. Even my cousin DJ who is in the military and has been in Japan for the past 3 years came home. Ben's parent's joined us on the flight up and stayed till Wednesday, just to be there for us. Unfortunately our trip was not just for the holiday, but we were there for my grandfather's funeral. He passed away 4 weeks prior and since he was cremated we were able to schedule it so that all of the Koch's could be there.

 We got in late Tuesday night but Dad made sure we had time to stop in Little Italy in Baltimore for dinner before we drove up to York, PA. Thank goodness he did, dinner was delicious. Olivia made a little friend while we were there and the 2 of them ran around the room we were sitting in for about an hour. Thanks to her Olivia feel asleep in the car moments after we pulled onto the highway.

Wednesday was a beautiful chilly day and it was also when we held Pop's service. All of us were there except Memom (his wife of 63 years), she was admitted into the hospital the day before for heart reasons. We were very close to getting her out just to come to the service but that didn't happen. Talk about a stressful holiday week. Pop had a military service and it was wonderful, the Chaplin even scarily looked like my grandfather.

We didn't really do much other then spend time hanging at my aunt's house and traveling back and forth between there and the hospital (Memom ended up staying there just over a week). But I stocked up on time with my cousins, aunt's, and uncle's!!!

 

Thursday was Benjamin's first Thanksgiving and boy did he eat, his food and he even got a little mashed potatoes and turkey from the big table. I have never felt more grateful for my family, every single member of my side and Ben's. It was a sad but wonderful trip.