Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone! This is only the 2nd Thanksgiving I have ever spent away from my mom and dad.... (tear). It went well though. Wally and I put together a nice meal. We made some things last night....I made the stuffing, potato salad, and a pumpkin cream cheese roll with Julia. Wally made banana pudding (his specialty) and deviled eggs. Today he made green bean casserole while I made mashed potatoes, corn, and rolls. And of course we had turkey, cranberry sauce, and through a combined effort we made giblet gravy. I say a combined effort because I refuse to touch the neck, giblets, or anything else that comes out of the turkey. I did it last year and vowed that I would never touch that stuff again! All in all, we were very pleased. Julia loves turkey and looks forward to Thanksgiving and Easter to get her fill. Aiden, as it turns out, loves cranberry sauce. I think he ate 4-5 helpings of that and just picked at the rest. Lexie shoveled everything in, especially the mashed potatoes (her fav), stuffing and the cranberry sauce.

We ate at dinnertime, after spending some time on the webcam with my parents, brothers and Kayla. Then we ended the day by making room for the Christmas tree and hauling out some of the Christmas stuff. Last year we bought a big pre-lit tree during the after-Christmas sales, so we were excited to put it up for the first time. It looks great! We didn't decorate it yet; that will come tomorrow. I'll put up a picture when it's done! We did pull out all of our decorations and start placing them around. Wally laughs at me every year when we unpack our Christmas boxes because I have so much snowman stuff. I love snowmen.

The kids were very excited, not just to see the decorations and tree, but because every year we pack up all the Christmas books, dvds, and stuffed animals with the ornaments and decorations. So every season when we unpack our stuff, they are so excited to see their things again! You should see their faces when we pull out their Christmas bears, stuffed Santas and snowmen. And the Christmas books! Our newly independent reader Julia grabbed a book right away and started reading. Aiden kept running around yelling "Ho ho ho! Ki-miss chee!" (Christmas tree!)

Now Wally and I are hanging out in our bed, enjoying pumpkin cream cheese roll and watching Baby Mama. I love Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. It's good to relax and laugh together. We have so much to be thankful for; it has been such a good year! I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving too! :)