Thanksgiving 2014

Thanks to a dicey looking weather forecast, our Thanksgiving break was extended by 1 day last week...we were supposed to leave Wednesday afternoon, but ended up leaving around 6pm Tuesday night instead, to avoid the predicted snow mess of Wednesday.  If you are a parent, you know that driving during bedtime can be a risky choice...sometimes it's great and the kids sleep most of the way then transfer right into a bed... other times, it totally backfires and you end up with kids who think sleeping in the car was a nap, and are wide awake when you get to your destination! Fortunately, this time it worked in our favor; the kids fell asleep at their usual time around 8pm, slept for the remaining 3 hours in the car, then transferred into their beds at Nana's house.  A Thanksgiving miracle!!

We were happy with our decision to beat the snow, as they did get quite a bit the next day! Jake was chomping at the bit all day to get out and play it in, but it was coming down so hard none of us wanted to venture out until it slowed down.  Fortunately, we were able to go out around 4...Liam was hesitant at first ("I don't want to go out, it's going to be cold!"---he's totally my kid) but he came around once he saw how much fun we were all having out there :)

The kids were worn out that night and needed to get plenty of rest since the next day was TURKEY DAY!!!

I always miss my maternity pants on Thanksgiving.

We were joined by Uncle Pip, Aunt Reen and Sarah, and I think everyone enjoyed the day of relaxing, parade and football watching, board game playing, and of course, eating.

 

At one point, the kids got a hold of the camera and snapped some random shots of other people and wanted to take some selfies:

I don't remember what was going on here, I think some type of weird dance-off.

On Friday night, I decided it would be a good idea to introduce the kids to "Home Alone"; classic Christmas movie, right??  Jake was hesitant at first, and told me he thought it was a "big kid" movie because it has real people.  Brian and I went on and on about how funny it was, and how much he was going to love it.  Eventually, he decided he wanted to give it a try.  Time to cozy up on the couch!!

Shortly after those pictures, the smiles ended for awhile.  Poor kid was scared.to.death once the movie got rolling...scared about the robbers, scared about the one part where Kevin turns on that gangster movie...we even covered his eyes and ears during that scene and he still freaked :(  He's very sensitive, and sometimes I forget this.  In the end, he did laugh hysterically once Kevin started setting off his traps, so that was good.  But then bedtime came...and the tears came again...he did fall asleep in his own bed, but after nightmares, I ended up sleeping in bed with him.  We may be holding off on "Home Alone 2" for awhile!! 

On Saturday, Christmas officially kicked off with the kids helping Nana put up her tree and decorations:

 

"Excellent work, everyone.  Keep it up.  I'll supervise from right here on the couch."

the finished product!!

"Hi!  My name is Gracie, and I enjoy long naps by the Christmas tree."

  And here is the end result of the little tree they decorated...cracks me up!

And look at these two....cuteness overload!!!

While Liam napped that afternoon, Jake and Nana baked some cookies.  My favorite kind of cookies, to be exact....the chocolate chip kind that I don't have to have any part in producing!! :)

On Sunday, we loaded up the car and headed home....just in time to decorate our house! 

We hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!