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Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. This year I am looking forward to it even more because I have been waiting for Jane and Michelle to come home for the first time since they both went away for college in August.

Michelle announced two weeks ago that she was officially homesick. She had caught a bad virus and was unwell for a couple of weeks. She asked me if we could visit her last weekend. I said I’d check back with her on Thursday and if she still needed a visit by then, we’d make a day trip to see her. On Thursday Michelle decided that we didn’t need to go because she’d be so busy studying for the exams and participating in AK Psi activities that she wouldn’t have time for anything else.

“Hang in there for one more week. I’ll see you at home, okay?”
“I am running out of steam, mom. I just want to come home ☹☹☹”

Jane had her last final on Thursday night. Friday morning Jane texted us with the exciting news that Jim, her boyfriend of almost two years, had received a third job offer and this was the one he wanted the most. Jim took a hard internship last summer selling door-to-door advertisement space of a coupon book to small businesses around IU campus. He was rejected a lot more than accepted. It was a difficult and lonely 13-week for Jim, but he went through it and made the sales goals. This experience has obviously helped him land his dream job today. The last time I saw Jim, he said to me, “Jane and I are going to work hard on our job searches. We are a team. Our goal is to for her to find internship and me to find a full-time position before Christmas!” We are just thrilled that both of them have reached their goals. On top of that Jim is going to spend the first year on the new job in Chicago!

Michelle went for her final AK Psi interview at 9 pm on Thursday evening. Even though the chance of her being cut was almost nonexistent, she was still nervous. Shortly after we received the update on Jim’s new job, Michelle delivered the message “I AM IN!!” After months of hard work and dedication, she was accepted as an official AK Psi member. I told my girls it was an AWESOME day and they made Mama so proud! They said they would be home noonish on Saturday. I remade their beds and was looking forward to the family reunion.

Friday evening, we came home around 8 pm after Jake’s Tae Kwon Do and our dance lessons. Jake went to take a shower and I was straightening up the kitchen. Suddenly I heard the sound of the garage door opening and wondered who that could be. I opened the door to the garage and saw the white Lexus pulling into the driveway. My heart rejoiced. “Daddy, Jane and Michelle are home!” I shouted out at Joe.

Jane and Michelle had planned to come home earlier to surprise us. What a pleasant surprise! I loved it! As they were eating at the coffee table, I sat on the sofa and asked Michelle what she had missed most about home. She said she missed sleeping in her own bed, having her own shower, and she missed Joey (our dog), and of course her parents and brother. The girls had been reading my posts and therefore knew that we no longer had the cooking lady. They asked how I had lost her and what I had been making for dad and Jake. Joey looked so content in Michelle’s arms and Jake was enthusiastically showing Jane how to play the new game on the iPad. I just sat there, smiling, taking everything in.

We spent the whole day Saturday re-bonding. We ate lunch in a Japanese restaurant, went grocery shopping at Sam’s club. Then I took the kids to the mall to do some pre-Black Friday scoping and shopping. Jane and I made dinner together. The girls have put the smoothie maker to good use and made some delicious drinks with strawberry, peach, yogurt and honey.

I can feel in my heart that this is going to be another amazing holiday season!