Thanksgiving

I hosted Thanksgiving this year! Am I crazy? Maybe. Was it fun? Yes.

The week FLEWWW by! And the week before... I was so busy with preparations I look back on it all and it's a huge blur. But it went really great!

Army of turkeys for piano students and place settings! .... First and probably last craft Collin helped me with! (due to his lack of patience for glue to dry!)

Gotta love the Thanksgiving decor.

Craft night with my buddies! I can't believe I look like I just rolled out of bed...ugh. Why does this happen to me?!

 



my cute garland



We began the Thanksgiving festivities at the Festival of Trees.... Mom, Andrea, and Jodee got to town just in time to meet us there and we got to scope out all the fun trees. My clogging team performed--it was my maiden voyage since over 2 years ago when I last performed! woot! I was nervous and a little tired that day but it went pretty well. Luckily I have always been blessed with great muscle memory so things stuck with me....somehow! :)

Jodee and Andrea stayed with us.... and Mom and Dad stayed at a hotel nearby....which turned out to be nice because well, we all know our house is only so big!

THANKSGIVING

We had a great morning watching the parade, checking out the Black Friday ads, watching football, watching the dog show.... etc. etc. It always sees like everything is so cozy when the house smells like turkey! I had done most of my cooking and preps the day before, so Mom, Dad, and I were only in the kitchen getting stuff ready for the last couple of hours before we ate, which was nice!

Jodee was rarely without either Ashlyn or Lucy in her lap!

Ashlyn tried so hard to say "Jodee"-- it came out "Day-Jo." which was pretty much the cutest thing ever.

Dad's favorite part of the meal was the fancy trail mix I set out with the place settings! No joke, he brought it up like 3 times!

The kitchen....before dinner

The kitchen...after dinner! (add a second table that was off to the side filled with dishes!)

Dad felt it was his duty to train Collin in proper Turkey Cooking 101. I didn't mind at all because raw meat is NOT my thing. The turkey was fabulous and I think these guys had a good time!

Girls!

For some reason Ashlyn thought she needed a ride on Grandma's foot any time she was sitting with her legs crossed.

My "facebook profile" pic (it's a family joke).... although I definitely got jipped. Mom replaced me with Cory like 3 days later! Boo!

Girls' craft night!

This got sent to Uncle Alex who is on his mission in Uruguay!

After a walk at the "Wildlife Preserve" (another joke), it was pie time! We had so much pie and whipcream for the amount of people there....it was ridiculous! I think I felt full for like 3 days!

And it just wouldn't be a family get-together without some FUGLY PICTURES! (Don't you love how Lucy joined in!)

Friday we hit Black Friday shopping at 8 am! I know, we were not hard core at all this year! Don't worry, we still came home with a car full of stuff!!! We had lots of fun games together into the night and watched a lot of movies!

Ok, brace yourself. This next one may be my favorite picture EVER.

 I know, right?! Ashlyn always finds these reading glasses of mine in my nightstand drawer and puts them on and walks around... this was just the first time I was quick enough to get a picture. I love it combined with the cardigan she's wearing.... Professor Ashlyn anyone??


Saturday morning everyone left but Jodee, who got to stick around for another day before she flew back to Salt Lake. Jodee, Ash and me headed over to check out the holiday parade, Collin had practice but he was able to leave a little early and come join us for a bit.

 I know, Ashlyn is such a pro at actually looking at the camera and smiling for pictures. :)

This was our first time at this parade, and I gotta say I was NOT too impressed! I mean, not that I was expecting amazing things, but really, it was SO SLOW and SO spread out it was ridiculous. There was like a 5 minute wait between every single parade entry. That is a little much in my opinion! I don't know if it is always that way but don't you think there would be a way to prevent that, so it's actually a parade and not just sitting staring at an empty street and every once in a while some people on the back of a truck come by playing music!?

It got pretty cold and then started to rain pretty hard so we busted out of there and stopped by Moxie Java for some CARAMEL HOT CHOCOLATE which is my long-time fave and it's been way too long since I had any--so yahoo!

The rest of the day was spent putting up Christmas decorations (I did it while Jodee and Collin watched FRIENDS and took naps).... then Jodee and I doing some more shopping.... then dinner at Chili's! (which unfortunately was one of those times Ashlyn was a complete pill so it wasn't exactly a relaxing dinner!)

What a fun, busy week! It was tiring for sure to host for that much stuff and so long--just keeping everything together for meals and stuff to do and whatever--but my family was so helpful and it was really fun to have everyone over! Ashlyn was in heaven every morning when she got to run out of her room to see "Auntie" and "Jay-Do." 

Happy Thanksgiving!