Thanksgiving 2014

We have so much to be thankful for this year...three healthy kids, great jobs (and maternity leave :), wonderful family, a warm house, and a safe community. For some reason, the birth of Avonlea really made me realize in a raw way how truly lucky we are. I don't want to take any of these things for granted!

We decided to stick to a "1 family event/day" rule this year so we spread our Thanksgiving celebrations out over a few days and it was a great idea because we were able to enjoy each event and still felt like we had a holiday "break" and time to be together.

On Tuesday night, my dad's side of family gathered at the Pizza Ranch and it was great to see everyone again. There were lots of kids (12 of the great-grandkids) so it was great that it was Kid's Night and I think hands-down my cousin Carter was the most popular with the little ones.

Hudson, Gramm, Ryan and Davis with Carter

Everyone had their fill and we were thankful to have the party room where the kids could be contained. They had fun playing and coloring after they were finished with all their pizza, pudding and ice cream (do they eat anything else?)

Jackson, Hudson, Saylor and Ryan coloring paper (and their hands?) with markers

Cohen was happy to find someone his size to play with too!

Cohen and Korver

He got plenty of time with Grandma and Grandpa too.

On Wednesday, Adam had school and then we all attended the joint worship service at our church at night.

On Thursday morning, we got to just hang around the house and the boys put up one of the trees.  We headed to Hull after naps and Ryan got to go sledding behind the Kubota with Saylor.

The temperature was in the teens and I think my dad was pretty cold after 2 rounds of getting the Kubota from the other side of town and giving rides outside, but it was nice to have our first holiday where he didn't have to run off to the farm to do chores!

Adam also ended up giving some rides to Ryan and Saylor.

It was fun for the boys to play with Saylor and Collyns and we once again attempted a picture.

Avonlea was looking cute as a cupcake and she had plenty of volunteers to hold her!

Great Grandma

On Friday, we put up the other Christmas tree and a few decorations and enjoyed having the day to spend at home again. Adam did a little "Black Friday" shopping at Bomgaars and we did some online shopping, but the only crazy thing he did was go to the corner gas station at 3:30am because they were selling gas for $1.99/gallon from 3-4am. He figured he was up anyway because Cohen had been up and he was proud of filling up the truck for only $40!

Friday evening, Adam's parents, brother, and niece came over for pizza (Double Points Day, y'all!) and we enjoyed a relaxing evening together.

The rest of the weekend allowed us time to just be at home and get a few projects done (hopefully I'll post about that later) and we were grateful for the low-stress time together!