we ate four delicious thanksgiving dinners this year. who can complain about that?! we started off with a bang with our 'friendsgiving' two saturdays before the actual holiday. everyone brought delicious food, my cute friend hosted and did up the prettiest tablescape, and we seriously had so much fun at this dinner! very obvious because of my lack of pictures. the wives sat at one end and the husbands at the other. it was also our only dinner without kids, which was really quite nice. we all ate the food while it was hot and just sat and enjoyed ourselves.
(if you know what friends thanksgiving episode is playing, we're best friends.)
next up was our thanksgiving with james' immediate family. my mother in law always goes all out and we have a delicious turkey and everything to go with it! again, i was horrible with the pictures! mostly just stuffing my face and chasing kids. we ate until we were sick, then retired to the basement to play a few rounds of psych (a game that's an app that you should totally download!) and then had dessert. the kids waited anxiously until the next day to decorate their gingerbread turkeys at nana's after we all ate turkey and leftovers. brooklyn and kendall were super proud of theirs!
and adalyn was happy to eat it after they were done!
thanksgiving day went as per usual...james playing in a turkey bowl, the girls and i at home watching the macy's parade while getting ready to go, and then hitting the road to cokeville to join family for a thanksgiving feast. it was an "off year" this year so our crowd was small but still so wonderful! james said this year he was most excited about the crab cocktail appetizer. i can't even argue that! i love this tradition and hope it never changes!
adalyn was obsessed with this book full of family memories of my uncle tom! she really didn't leave it alone except for when she was eating dinner.
kendall set the kid table and sure was proud of herself!
after dinner, we lounged and scoured black friday deals, visited, and then had pie. everyone was pooped and full to the brim and we really didn't stay up that late.
my girls had so much attention being the only kids there. keni got her nails painted, brooklyn got ballet lessons from great grandma carol, and adalyn ran around to all the adults talking their ears off and trying to brush their hair.
the next morning we gathered the girls up to give them their Christmas pillow cases. last year i did a picture of Christ, and this year we talked about the significance of the candy cane. they loved it and wanted to eat them for breakfast...i didn't think that through...
for breakfast, i couldn't help myself, i brought a danish kringle for everyone to try. you can buy them at trader joe's and i'm telling you...you won't be the same after one of these!
my girls always love to watch the cows and horses out my grandparents' windows.
my grandma arranged for us to see an amazing display of nativities in town and i am so glad we went! over six hundred nativities to look at. i'm sure we didn't see them all. it was an amazing way to start off the Christmas season.
adi got a little handsy so she and i went out to the van to jam to some Christmas music.
our last thanksgiving dinner was that saturday with james' mom's side of the family. this is always a big dinner with lots of kids and my girls absolutely love it! so many fun kids to run around play with. it's nice at the church because i usually get to just sit and talk while they run around.
we had our fill of turkey and pumpkin pie and were so lucky to spend our dinners with people we love and cherish. i'm so grateful for this and i hope my girls will have wonderful memories of these thanksgiving dinners! until next year...we're ready to celebrate Christmas!
