Thanksgiving in Mississippi

Donna usually ends up working on holidays, so we rarely get to enjoy Thanksgiving or Christmas together, but this year she managed to get some days off for Thanksgiving, so we headed to Mississippi to visit her folks. We first went to Jackson and picked up her mom, and the three of us then headed to Walls, just south of Memphis, where the rest of her family lives. We stayed with her aunt and uncle, and that's where we had Thanksgiving dinner.

Donna and her aunt and cousins decorating the Christmas tree


Her uncle and mom


One of the family's three cats


Wednesday night we headed into Memphis; we passed Graceland, which is quite a site at Christmas, all decorated with blue lights. I unfortunately didn't have my camera with me on that outing, though.

We headed back to Jackson on Friday and stayed there for the night. Her mom lives in Raymond, which is where we lived before moving to South Carolina, and it was good seeing some old sites, such as the cemetery across the road.




Confederate soldiers


Saturday morning we departed for a day in Starkville, the day of the "Egg Bowl" game against Ole Miss, which State ended up winning handily.


The YMCA / post office building




State troopers about to escort the Ole Miss team buses out of town




Dan Mullen, the former offensive coordinator at Florida, took over as our head coach this year and has shown tremendous promise.




This was our first time seeing the tree planted in memory of our band director, Dr. Sills. We also got to see Mrs. Lance, the current director, who was the assistant director while we were there; she gave us a tour of the new band hall, which is an amazing facility - much better than the old garage we used to rehearse in!