Sharing Home Cooked Love

The holidays have always been a very special time for us but this year Thanksgiving was even more special. 

We live across the country from our family.  My in-laws live about 750 miles away and my husband has one brother. who lives in Pennsylvania, a REALLY long way from Texas!  

Last summer we realized it had been six years since we’d all been together and our children had seen their cousins (FAR TOO LONG) so we decided it was high time we did something about it.  

Cousins…..Then

As we worked back and forth to find a date and place to get together, we quickly realized why it had been so long. So many schedules made it difficult, but it was finally decided we would all come to our house for Thanksgiving!  Everyone was super excited!  

Cousins….Now!  Funny how they lined up in the same order….totally unintentional!    

We talked about and planned for this visit for months!  What would we do?  Where would we go? and of course….

What would we have to eat?! 

There are so many foods we associate with home and family it was hard to narrow down just a few.  This visit we were celebrating Thanksgiving and my father-in-law’s 70th birthday, so of course we needed a cake. We decided on Chocolate Chip Pound Cake….not a traditional birthday cake but a family favorite, passed down for generations.

We did have a little trouble with the first one….you can read about it here, but in the end It was a HUGE hit, bringing back memories of past birthdays, Sunday dinners and other holidays spent together.

We had a wonderful visit.  It doesn’t matter how long it is between family visits, you can just pick up where you left off.  We played games and looked through old pictures.  Our son really enjoyed having another boy to hang out with and play ball.  Uncle Bryan took the girls for a little early morning Black Friday shopping and of course, we visited the Western Store and had some BBQ brisket…it’s Texas.  The time went WAY too quickly and before we knew our visit was over.  

Shortly after they left my daughter suggested we send Uncle Bryan a Chocolate Chip Pound Cake for Christmas. It’s far and away his favorite, he only gets it when his mom visits and we wanted him to have that special feeling of home and family even though we couldn’t all be together.  I wasn’t sure if I could get it there in one piece but after watching Bringing Home a Little Closer by Western Union, I was inspired to give it a try!  

It took a little planning…

We Baked

We wrapped

We packaged…and shared home cooked love from across the country!

A couple of days later we got a text telling us the package had been received and they were already enjoying the cake!  Thanks Western Union for encouraging and inspiring us!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.