The Thanksgiving holidays were a rousing success for the Milligan clan, filled with food, fun and fellowship as we gave thanks for all our blessings, all while we tried to survive spending multiple days among a host of half-wild girl children running amok.

The girls arrived early to the family homestead on Thanksgiving morning and immediately were ready to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. Kara, who is in the sixth grade band at George Walton Academy, enjoyed the marching band performances, Miriam was obsessed with seeing the Rockettes perform and Rebekah was all in for the performance from Netflix favorite “K-Pop Demon Hunters” which graced the occasion. And then they all told us their favorite part was Santa, which made my father wonder why we bothered to watch anything but the end of the parade. 

While we partook of a noontime Thanksgiving dinner — with turkey, ham, dressing, dumplings, cranberry sauce and a multitude of other trimmings, not to mention three different pies, including pecan and pumpkin — we also left the TV on the National Dog Show, which had my nieces oohing and aahing over all the cute puppies all over the screen.

I’m surprised they were able to swallow any food at all given how much they kept craning their necks to see another cute dog on TV. 

There was a host of football to watch over the weekend, of course, though that interested the girls less. Kara, on the other hand, was happy to finally start season five of “Stranger Things,” as well as watch the first “Avatar” film, primed when I promised I’d take her to see the new one provided she saw the other two first. One down, one to go, but the adventures of the blue cat people is a smashing success so far.

We all went to the movie theater on Saturday to see “Zootopia 2,” which was also a big hit with the adolescents in the group, as well as the rest of us.

The buddy cop mystery at the core of the movie won’t hold many surprises for older filmgoers, but it was funny and charming, and had one of the most unexpected Stanley Kubrick references I’ve ever seen in a movie ostensibly aimed at children. I might have laughed a bit harder than is polite when the hedge maze showed up and the needle drop set up the joke. 

And there was shopping and more eating and a few more movies — I went and caught “Wake Up Dead Man,” the latest Benoit Blanc mystery in the “Knives Out” series, on my own and had a great time with that. 

Georgia beat Georgia Tech, which always makes for a great Thanksgiving holiday, and Texas A&M’s loss to Texas paved the way for Georgia to play in the SEC Championship this weekend in a suddenly highly-anticipated rematch with the Alabama Crimson Tide. 

Now the Christmas holidays are upon us at last, which means carols and many more movies — holidays classics, of course, but I still have to show Kara the second “Avatar” film, too — and festive events like this week’s Monroe Christmas parade. 

All while I try to survive excursions with feral nieces who make living among wild animals in Zootopia seem like a walk in the park. 

Stephen Milligan is the managing editor of The Walton Tribune, a sister publication of The Covington News. He can be reached at stephen.milligan@waltontribune.com.