For Thanksgiving 2006, more than 25 family members had come to Macon to spend time together. For 2007, the Athni family decided to go to Texas.

Uma and Ramakrishna now live in San Antonio, while Purna and Jessica now live in Austin. We drove on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 from Macon to San Antonio, Texas. Although we arrived in Uma's house at around 11 pm, she had a wonderful meal prepared for us. We stayed up late into the night just talking and having fun.

This was our first visit to Uma's new house in San Antonio. It is a beautiful house, finely appointed with tasteful furnishings. The floor plan is fabulous with a game room "loft" upstairs, and a very spacious living area down stairs.

The next day, Thanksgiving day, Purna, Jessica, Tejani, Pratibha, and Nischal drove down from Austin. We spent the entire day together. We had a fantastic meal, prepared by Uma, which was topped off by a very tasty mango lassi. This was our first chance to see Tejani, who is very cute and cuddly. She played with everyone, including Tejas, without any fear of a "foreign face". Purna & his family left late that evening, driving back to Austin.

On Friday, Uma, Ramakrishna, and our family drove to Purna's new house in Austin. We had jumbo-sized samosa's, followed by a very tasty north Indian meal prepared by Jessica. Surprisingly, Uma's house builder was also Purna's house builder! Purna's house is also very lovely, built for Tejani's enjoyment. A large living area with a private office work area make his house very warm and cozy. We left late in the evening back to San Antonio.

On Saturday, we got up late, had wonderful conversations, followed by another delicious meal. Uma's cooking was absolutely fantastic during the entire weekend. I gained a "few" pounds during this little vacation.

Since we had a long drive ahead of us, we left San Antonio around 3:30 pm. We stayed in Lafayette, LA that evening. On Sunday, we drove back to Macon.

It is hard to believe that another Thanksgiving has passed. It was very special to have spent this holiday with family. We hope we can continue this new "tradition", and try to have small family get-togethers every November.