🍁
We lived in Connecticut for six years.
Jason’s three brothers still live there.

Now we get to go back every other year as the Hall family gathers to spend Thanksgiving together.

Jason and I have always taken Coleman a couple days early so we can visit New York City.🏙

We ride the subway and the bus, see a show, go to some sights like the Met or the Statue of Liberty or the 9/11 Memorial, get cookies at Levain Bakery, visit the temple and Central Park, eat NYC pizza - then take the train to Connecticut once the cousins are out of school for the holiday.

Coleman’s been to NYC three times already.
🕺🏻Lucky kid.

This was a NYC/Connecticut year for Thanksgiving.
I was dragging my feet booking the flight, getting the hotel reservations for New York and planning the activities we would do in the City.
The thought of doing it without Jason overwhelmed me and made me really sad.
This was our place. Our thing. And he wouldn’t be there.

Then we hit a snag.
Coleman’s fifth grade class was scheduled to do Junior Achievement Town the Monday of Thanksgiving Week.
This was a big deal.
A much bigger deal than I thought.
The kids apply for a job and for one day, run a mock city located downtown.

You can only do it as a fifth grader.
It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event!

We had a dilemma.
Do we do our tradition and go to NYC before heading into Connecticut or do we do JA Town?

The thought of NYC overwhelmed me...but it was our family tradition.
Could I NOT do it????

Here was the real dilemma:
I wasn’t sure if I could do NYC but I also wasn’t sure if I could let it go.

Coleman said, “Let’s do JA Town.
Mom, it’s only for fifth graders.
It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event!”

I breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Let’s do it.”
I booked our flight for the evening of JA Town.🛫
We skipped NYC this year.
We skipped the tradition.
We skipped the memories.
We skipped the emotion of being there without 🦸🏻‍♂️Jason.
We skipped the City and went straight to the cousins.
We skipped all of it so that our favorite fifth-grader could be CEO of Chick-fil-A for a day.🐄

I think Jason liked our choice.
✊🏻💙
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