Thanksgiving Staycation

For as much as I love to travel, I was completely happy to stay put for our Thanksgiving break this year.  We had so much fun together as a family and with our friends who have become like family.

The kids had the day off of school on Wed, but Andrew had to work.  I asked the kids for ideas on what they wanted to do and they suggested ice skating.  Huh.  I was hesitant.  How could I pull that off when neither of the girls had ever been skating before and Andrew wouldn't be there to help.  But...we decided to give it a try.

I'm so glad we did!

Brandon had been before and did really well. He likes skating and only fell a time or two. Poor Whit only got a one-lap tutorial and then I needed to help Care Bear.  Whit had a close, healthy relationship with the wall.  :)  When we first got to the rink (but of course AFTER I'd already paid for all of us to skate), Caroline started crying because she said she was too scared to skate.  Understandable.  It does look kinda scary.  So, she took a seat on the side of the rink while I helped her sis.  But after just a few minutes she had changed her mind.  We got her hooked up with a a little "skating trainer."  It was the cutest thing I'd ever seen--a little miniature PVC walker that she could push out on the ice.  She rocked as soon as she stepped out on the ice.  And she was FAST.  So much fun.

A cute little video of C Bear skating:

We had such a wonderful time with Tiffany, Chris, Ben, April and their kids last year, that we all decided to do a repeat gathering this year for Thanksgiving.  Hooray!

Andrew was in charge of the turkey again.  He loves it.  And brines a tasty bird.  Mmmmm.  The rest of us pitched in to round out the meal.  And we had our much-anticipated pie buffet once again.  The funny thing was, last year we made WAY too much food.  We had leftovers coming out of our ears and got sick of them before they were gone.  So, all of us cut back on the portions of our food.  But apparently our kids' appetites (or our appetites?) have grown since last year.  Because while we had plenty of food for the holiday, we didn't have much left over.  Darn.

The kids played together REALLY well again.  And after stuffing ourselves, we played Ticket to Ride, watched football, toured Chris and Tiffany's newly purchased land, played a big group game of reverse charades, and also a little Wits and Wagers. We stayed just long enough to push Caroline past her good-behavior limit so everyone could see her meltdown when it was time to leave.  :)

Friday was the annual Turkey Bowl.  The weather was PERFECT for it.  The guys had a blast.  I had fun practicing for my post-Andrew's-retirement career as a sports photographer.  Here are ten favorites from the TWELVE HUNDRED that I took.  Sheesh.

I did all my Black Friday shopping online.  LOVED that.

That night, we had Audrey babysit so Andrew and I could watch "Life of Pi." Neither of us had read the book, so didn't know what we were getting ourselves into.  I thought I was taking us to the 2D version, but accidentally ended up there at the 3D showtime.  What a happy mistake!  It was a GREAT movie and was visually stunning.  I was so glad we paid the extra for the 3D.

On Saturday, we *tried* to take the kids to a matinee showing of "Rise of the Guardians," but it was sold out.  Boo.  Instead we watched Wreck-It Ralph.  Again.  The kids were happy.  Andrew and I both took cat naps.  It was good the first time around, but once in a month was plenty. After the movie, we went out to our family's favorite restaurant--Bonsai!  It was scrumptious, as always.  And we had a groupon for it, so it was cheap, too.  Double hooray!

The ward choir sang one of my favorite songs at church today, "Come Thou Fount." We had more singers than we've ever had and it sounded beautiful.  I loved being part of it.  Whitney is singing with us now, too, which is fun.

Andrew had his first speaking assignment as a High Councilor.  He thought it went pretty well. I'm sure it was great.  He's a wonderful speaker.

It's going to be hard to send the kids back to school tomorrow.  And I guess I better hit the books myself, too.  Sports Psychology.  I'm loving the material, but falling behind my timeline.  D'oh.