Thanksgiving one day late

 11/29: It’s Thanksgiving for us so we could watch the Macy’s parade and our Packers play today. We enjoyed our exercise and coffee, then started the chicken while we had appetizers and played charades (Simone's request!).  A funny memory for us will be Bob trying to get me to say 'pot' and me guessing 'kettle' and his shaking his head and saying, "I quit!" Ha!

Presenting the kids with their Thanksgiving gift - a Toblerone bar

Enjoying some Fortnight and the parade. What a beautiful day!

Simone made festive treats - golden Oreos, skittles, bugles, and chocolate pieces

Our Thanksgiving chicken :-)

Yum! It all turned out! We loved the chicken so much the kids asked if we could have it more often at home - I should’ve been making a whole chicken more often through the years! Super easy like I always remember my mom saying.

The most emotional time of the day came next when we had our tradition of saying what we’re thankful for. The youngest always starts. Simone is thankful we have all remained healthy throughout our travels. She's glad we didn't go through with our visa because we have gone so many places that we didn't originally plan on going. She's thankful we are closer to going home, and for all the planning and lovely accommodations we have enjoyed. Quinn is also thankful for our health, and all the pills/supplements I have brought along to keep us healthy. He's thankful for our amazing lives - we have seen some rundown places, and we are so much better off than so many people in this world. He has a new perspective on our lives in the world. He also thought this trip would be mentally harder than it has been. Lastly, he is thankful for Bob and his work on Project Foresee.

I am also thankful for our health, and the close relationship that the four of us have developed on this trip. We have really become a solid team! I am also super thankful for everything we have waiting for us at home - our physical belongings, yes, but mainly our friends, family, and community that we love so much.  Very few people in the world have all of these blessings to be thankful for!

Bob is thankful for our childhood and blessed lives - our travel to Bosnia has affected him the most out of all of our destinations. The war and devastation that has occurred in our lifetime was completely unknown to us until we visited Bosnia.

We reviewed with the kids the goals that we had for this journey:

1.) We wanted to grow closer together as a family - we have absolutely accomplished this. We have relied on each other and supported each other exclusively for 6 months, and have worked so well together.

2.) We wanted to learn and experience together. Check! We have experienced so many different languages, cultures, and sites... I think we have experienced a years worth of travel in 6 months. It has been truly amazing and fulfilling.

Bob and I have been discussing these goals and our future travels since we were in Istanbul, and we felt like our journey was reaching the point of diminishing returns...that what we were continuing to gain was less and less, while our desires and obligations were drawing us home. We really felt like we could return to the States anytime and consider our journey a complete success, and we didn't feel like we had to stay away just for the sake of staying away.

There were so many factors to consider, and Bob and I massaged all the issues when we had a few moments alone (the four of us are together most of the time!). We were spending our time out of the Schengen region (in Turkey, Bosnia, Montenegro) in places we hadn't planned on going in order to 'reset' our time to spend 90 more days inside the Schengen region (where we had originally intended to be for our whole trip). So now, to think about heading home before 'using' all of our Schengen days seemed like a mistake. So...we discussed slowing down and spending one month in three places. What would that look like? It would eliminate the constant change (which we all wanted to slow down the frequent moving), but the kids would still be spending the majority of our time in our place doing their schoolwork. Bob could be working on CMT, but I can't do my job (which I am missing more and more). My role of frequent grocery shopping, meal fixing, laundry doing would stay the same. We would absolutely be able to explore the areas we would be living in like we have so far, but we all do feel a bit of tourist fatigue (we've seen a lot of castles/ruins/waterfalls). I hate this feeling, but it is real. It feels terrible to NOT be enchanted with truly amazing sights, but we find ourselves wanting to do less in each successive place.

Another big consideration was the ability to exercise in each place, especially for Quinn. Our biggest priority is maintaining his strength and flexibility, and the best place to keep his routines going is at home. We have definitely done our best while traveling, but our home gym area is the best. 

Once Bob and I started considering the idea of going home earlier in the New Year, it was a frequent thought in both of our heads. We decided not to share any of our considerations with the kids, as we knew it would change their mindsets as well. Our struggles in Istanbul and Cappadocia I'm sure played a role in our readiness for home as well, but we definitely tried to analyze all the angles. We did not want to make a hasty decision and regret it later. After all, we had everything set up to live abroad for a year, and knew we were in a situation that we will never be in again.

We kept revisiting our goals and making sure if we made plans to stay in Europe until early March, that our continued journey would continue to advance our family objectives (I sound so clinical! Ha!) At one point, when we had had enough of Turkey, we considered calling it quits before heading to Bosnia. There were definitely a few times where I said to Bob 'if you told me we're leaving tomorrow I'd be thrilled.' Wow am I glad we didn't do that! We loved Bosnia. I have been really looking forward to Croatia and Slovenia, so I definitely wanted to stay until we saw those places.

After that was very much an open slate. Bob had originally thought that we'd start around Rome and work our way north and west along the Mediterranean coast through Italy, France and Spain. We did not have any specific places/sights to see, but I'm sure we would've found cool accommodations and we would've used our free time to explore interesting places. It really felt like...to a certain extent...that we had already won. That more was not necessarily better. That we have gained a wealth of experience, knowledge, wisdom and perspective, and even more appreciation and LOVE of our home and community than ever. We have lived it, and we're ready to return. And...we reminded ourselves, it's only two months earlier than it would have been if we were to stay for the whole length of time, as we are re-entering the Schengen area on December 8, so we would have to leave about March 8.

We thought about not staying until March, but going somewhere in Italy/France for one month and heading back in February. The kids have always told me they have new students joining their classes throughout the year, so part of me thought it would be no big deal to have them re-enter Campus mid-semester. But...we thought...why do that if there isn't a solid reason? It would probably be the best case scenario to have them start at the beginning of the term if possible.

Where we landed, then, was to continue our travels through Christmas in Lake Bled and then head back to the States. We did a little planning with Grandma and Grandpa (who had called me while we were in Antalya to lament my mom not wanting him to put up the tree because no one would be there to enjoy it. He was thrilled to hear we would be there on 12/27!) We decided to fly to Chicago, drive to Brookfield to see my parents for a few days, then head to the Dursts for a night (yes!!) before heading to see Wendy, Mats, Gus, and Steph for NYE. Fun! The plan sounded perfect, and the kids would be thrilled when we tell them! It was weird, though, when we actually bought our plane tickets (which we did in Antalya) for 12/27 flying to Chicago. Then we planned to head home on 1/2/25...five days before school starts on 1/7.

DISCLAIMER for anyone reading: Please do not tell your children! We are going to share the news of our return with our adult friends, but Quinn and Simone would very much like to surprise their friends with our early arrival home.

Bob and thought about it a ton every day, and we would check in with each other a lot about how we were feeling about the decision. It gave us quite a bit of comfort actually when we were feeling frustrated/burned out (in Bodrum, our last two days traveling to Istanbul). We decided we'd tell the kids on Thanksgiving - we thought that would not be too early and not too close to our departure either - and we thought it might give them a 'jolt' of energy for touring...knowing that there was an end date...that they might have more capacity for touring.

There has been so much thinking, planning, packing, moving, hiking, touring, pb n j making, apple cutting, layer planning, backpack stuffing, grocery/laundry translating, food management planning (ie we have 2 more nights - how can we plan our food consumption so we have the least amount to travel with but I still need to grocery shop for fresh items and Bob keeps thinking I'm buying too much food. Ahhh! I've often thought I feel like I'm constantly camping in trying to carefully plan food for each meal to work out as well as possible for our next move.) But overall, there has been so much anticipation for this journey...for years. Since the kids were toddlers. And now, to think we're almost done with it...it's a whole lot of feelings. It's bittersweet. It's a feeling of sadness (melancholy?), joy, accomplishment, perspective, awe (as in 'we did this!' and 'is it really over?').

So, after Bob said what he was thankful for, and we told the kids that we would be heading home at the end of December, they both broke down in tears of joy...which caused Bob and me to start crying too. It was quite the emotional, strong moment for the four of us. I'm glad we have it audio recorded. We agreed we are excited for all that awaits us at home, but will miss this time of just being the four of us 24/7.

We wrapped up the night playing Codenames with Nick and Sam in Indiana, and then started off the season with watching Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.