Thanksgiving 2011

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving in a very different way, we traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to visit our youngest daughter Amy. We left Bentonville, Arkansas on the day before Thanksgiving and spent the first night of our journey in New Albany, Mississippi. That night we decided to have dinner at Kentucky Fried Chicken where there was advertised to be a "buffet," but when we arrived the buffet was out of chicken, so we decided to leave and go somewhere else. But just as we were walking out the door, we heard the manager call from behind the counter that he had suddenly discovered more chicken! Then, as we were paying for the chicken buffet dinner we noticed that five or six other people in the restaurant started moving toward the buffet line. (I guess they had been waiting for more chicken to come out on the buffet) So, it was a scramble to see who would get a piece! This was my first experience at the Kentucky Fried Chicken Buffet, and needless to say, it will be my last.

The next day we drove the rest of the way to Atlanta. We had Thanksgiving Dinner at Wendy's in Moody, Alabama. It was delicious! Wendy's is one of our favorite places to stop whenever we are on a roadtrip. We arrived in Atlanta around 4:00pm and went to the apartment where we would be staying. This apartment was leased by Community Coffee Company as a place for the employees to stay while they were working in Atlanta, but since this was a Holiday none of the others would be there, so I was able to stay there with Fletcher. This worked out great since Amy lives in a very small one bedroom apartment.

That evening we got to visit with Amy and Josh at her apartment and we also spent the next three days visiting with Amy and seeing and doing fun things in Atlanta. Here are a few photos taken during our visit:

Lunch on Friday at Mary Mac's Tea Room in Atlanta, GA

Located on Ponce de Leon

We had turkey and dressing and bread pudding for dessert.

It was delicious!

Saturday, we had lunch at The Flying Biscuit!

It was a cute restaurant in Buckhead.

Shopping at Phipps Mall in Buckhead on Saturday.

Amy's sweet and very patient dog, Bailey.

Amy's Christmas tree at her apartment on Peachtree Hills Circle.

The view from Amy's apartment balcony.

This is where Amy walks Bailey behind her apartment.

One of the highlights of our visit was on Sunday. We attended church with Amy at Passion City Church in Atlanta. This church is located just around the corner from Amy's apartment. The worship leader is Chris Tomlin and the pastor is Louie Giglio! It was one of the best worship services I have ever attended! I am a fan of both Chris Tomlin and Louie Giglio, and I never thought I would see either of them in person. It was like attending a Passion Conference. The message brought by Louie Giglio was from John 10 - Jesus the Good Shepherd. It was just about the best sermon I've ever heard in my lifetime. Wow! I can't even imagine what it would be like to be able to go to church there every Sunday! They were both outstanding!

We are so thankful that we were able to visit Amy in Atlanta for Thanksgiving, and we enjoyed our time spent together with Amy and Josh. It was well worth the long drive. Amy will be moving to New York City in January, so we especially enjoyed getting to spend this special time just with her, and to be able to get to know Josh better. We have enjoyed all of our visits to Atlanta to see Amy for the last two and a half years. Atlanta, Georgia is a beautiful southern city!