New York Thanksgiving - 2015

Thanksgiving with the Fagellas
It was a glorious warm Thanksgiving Day for 2015 - perfect for a drive north on I-95 to New York.  Uncle John, Aunt Yvonne, and Deborah were hosting the Fagella family festivities and several of the Fagellas were able to make the trip.

Anna and family started out early Thanksgiving morning in an effort to avoid the traffic.  Thanks to the early arrival, everyone got to enjoy the beautiful 70 degree weather at Liberty State Park in New Jersey.  The views of the city were spectacular.  Anna thought the large playground at the park was even more spectacular.  It was a great way to enjoy the afternoon.

Deborah, Andrew, James, Luke & Anna
After a tranquil visit to the park, we rejoined the traffic masses and headed to Uncle John's house.  After some quality time waiting to get over the GW Bridge (where we were greeted by the sight of police officers with M-16s - you gotta love the increased terrorism threat level), we arrived.  We enjoyed a delicious dinner and celebrated the Fagella sisters's respective birthdays (Aunt Lucy's on Thanksgiving and Aunt Loren's the day after....Aunt Mary was earlier in the week).  The entertainment for the evening was provided by the boys who happened to have electronic charades on their phone.  Actually, the cousins were having a fine time playing charades on their own until the adults intervened after finding out there were music categories, such as "Songs of the 70s."  You can imagine the scene of adults humming 1970s tunes while the kids looked confused.  Suffice it to say the charades game went back to categories like "animals." 

After the festivities, Anna & family along with Aunt Lucy and family headed to Aunt Mary's new house for the night.  Aunt Mary hosted a giant sleepover for two nights and James organized the tours.  The tour included the towns of Hunington and Cold Spring Harbor, the beach and the grand finale of a holiday light parade of boats in the harbor.  It was a great way to kick off the holiday season.  Saturday concluded with a HUGE dinner at a local Greek restaurant to celebrate Aunt Loren's birthday. 

View from Liberty State Park in New Jersey
Before heading out on Saturday morning, Joe picked up the requisite New York bagels to take back to Virginia and Theresa hit the local pastry shop.  Aunt Mary packed her famous "gobbler" sandwiches for all of the road warriors as everyone headed home.  Thank goodness for the sandwiches as it was a VERY long ride home.

It was a great Thanksgiving weekend.  A big thanks to Uncle John & Aunt Yvonne for hosting dinner and to Aunt Mary & James for hosting the sleepover in their beautiful new house.  We looks forward to the next visit!

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