Happy Thanksgiving!

What a wonderful Thanksgiving we had around here!

I really appreciate the fact that since I live so close to both families, I NEVER have to cook a whole Thanksgiving meal. This year I made three pies and made the yummy green beans. Not the green bean casserole with those icky crunchy onions on it. No, I make a green bean dish with apples and bacon and it’s quite yummy. So yummy, in fact, that my children accused me of NEVER making it. Excuse me? I’ve made it at least twice this year, thank you very much. And if you like it so much, why haven’t you asked for it? With a little bit of notice, I can surely whip up some bacon green beans on a weeknight, if I had known they would like it so much.

The night before, we decided to make some oreo turkeys.

I discovered them and we made some last year, but this year went much better. You’ve got to make really really strong frosting to hold everything together.
We had so much fun, we made a LOT.

And watched Elf. One of my favorite Christmas movies. When we returned the movie to our neighbor, we took over some turkeys. Just for fun.

Thanksgiving day was nice. We met with Ryan’s family at his sister Julene’s house. It ended up being kind of a small group; just our family, Julene and Italo, Ryan’s Mom and Dad, and his sister Vicki, her husband Chuck, and their daughter Camille. They have two boys, who we thought were coming, until their oldest son ended up in the hospital for an emergency gall bladder surgery the day before Thanksgiving. The other son stayed in the hospital with him. Everything was set up so nicely and the table was so pretty.

And the food was all so wonderful!

After dinner, we made our way over to my sister Amy’s house. She lives about 3 miles from Julene’s house. My parents were there for Thanksgiving, and it was so convenient that everyone decided to have their dinners so close, so we could visit some of my family, even if it was an Erickson year (we usually alternate between the Colemans and the Ericksons. It’s GREAT to have so much family around!) WE enjoyed visiting with them, but couldn’t stay and eat pie, as we had made pies and left them at Julene’s house. So, we made our way back, to find everyone lounging around “digesting” their food. We stuffed in some pie.

We were so full and SO tired, we could barely keep our eyes open to make it home. What a lovely day!

Black Friday I resisted the urge to get up early and go out shopping. I did some online bargain hunting and found many of the things I was looking for at nearly the same price, so why fight the crowds? I decided to take John to the aquarium, just the two of us. I had a parent and child membership I had to redeem. Hopefully the two of us will enjoy a few visits to the little aquarium this year. We decided to stop at IKEA and have lunch. John of course wanted to be checked into the playland there, so while he played, I did some FAST shopping. Then the two of us had lunch (his was free). Yes, it was crowded, but we survived the wait. When we got home, we found the kids deeply engaged in rockband, just as they had been when we left.

Julene had invited us over for a game night/scrapbook night, so we went over there AGAIN. We enjoyed a lovely night of games, the kids had some much needed cousin time, and it was another fun night!

Saturday we sorted out some lights. I had to take all the lights off my very big wreath, as only about 1/4 of them were lighting. So, I bought new lights and strung those up, tied a bow, and had Ryan hang that up. We have SO many lights in boxes, it’s hard to tell which ones work and which ones don’t. Ryan wants new fancy lights for the house, but I’m not ready to pay all that money for LED lights. We have a large porch (times 2), so I’ll settle for the lighted wreath and maybe lights on a couple of trees. Maybe next year I’ll feel ready to make the light purchase. Or maybe I’ll buy them in January when they go on sale! I did go to Costco and splurge on new large outdoor ornaments to hang on my porch, but only because Ryan told me my old ones were not looking good and I should go and buy some new ones.

I know a lot of people have been feverishly putting up all their Christmas decorations, but I haven’t felt the need to get everything up. Maybe after we get all these lights put away and sorted out, we can bring up the tree and work on that. Some of the decorations I like to do by myself, without the kids helping, so I’ll wait until they are back in school to do it.

It’s been such a nice relaxing weekend. No fighting crowds, not a TON of food to bake and frantic house cleaning. I do have a turkey that I will cook on Sunday, but I’m not making all the fancy trimmings to go with it. I’m just enjoying the down time with my family. A wise girl once said, “family is what God gave us time for.” I love spending time with my family (although I admit I did send a few of my children off to play with friends today while I went to Costco.

Tomorrow is Sunday, and one more day to enjoy the family. I hope we can get the tree set up, although Megan has to give a talk in sacrament meeting and that might cause a lot of drama.

We have so much to be thankful for! It’s been a wonderful year full of blessings and a wonderful week to remind us of those blessings. I hope your holiday was wonderful as well.