Thanksgiving Holiday!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!  What a wonderful time of year!  I've been driving myself crazy by trying to get a bunch of projects done before Thanksgiving.  That didn't happen, though I did get some stuff done.

My sister Lena and her family stopped for a few hours on their way to Pennsylvania for some homemade pumpkin pie.  Get it? That is where we all went actually for Thanksgiving.  They were just ahead of us.  Keith decided to hang out with us and Clark went with them.


I spent the day baking on Wednesday.  I got all of my Thanksgiving and Christmas pies done!!!  I am going to do this next year as well.  I even had one extra crust to make meat pie with.  I totally broke my wire whisks that go on the Bosch.  Apparently you should use the dough hook when making a triple batch of pie dough.  Duh.  I kept finding little plastic pieces in the pie dough as well, but my rolling pin would catch on them so I think I got all of them.  I ordered new whisks and Lee pounded out the metal drive they attach to.  I hope it's all fixed..... My lovely mess!  It was fun listening to holiday music as well.  Seriously, the best Pandora Christmas station is the Paul McCartney Holiday Channel.  It plays a variety of all the good songs. 


I made 6 cranberry pies.  I love these pies.  And so much better than cherry!


And the rest pumpkin.  I brought 12 to Thanksgiving and froze 9.  I will use the 9 at Christmas.


We went up to PA on Thanksgiving Day about 1pm.  We made good time driving up.  After stopping at Darrell's we headed to the church...first stopping to buy a paper!  Darrell, Lena, Stephanie, Lois and families and my parents were there.  It was so fun.  Wish everyone could have been with us.  We missed having Deb there too.  It would would have been so fun having all the sisters together.


Our group is so big we just have to eat at the church.


It's like a branch party!


Rebecca and Katie did the pinecones in the center and I brought the table cloths and paper goods.  Not super fancy but it worked!




After dinner we had the annual race! The Heit boys dominated the race!


I ran with the older kids and came in last.  Sounds like Cal won this age group.  We ran around their church...kind of freaky at night as there isn't a sidewalk all the way around!




Check out Rhett....haha.  I bought several Martinellis and Rhett wanted to get every last drop!


I loved the cleanup!!!






Clark got in on it too...






Joseph wrote a Thanksgiving play.  It's become kind of a tradition now. Shanna and Kirsten did commercial breaks.




Cal did the worm for us.






We wanted to get a quick family picture that turned into an ordeal....




Of course...Lightening!  Or Blackout.  Or whatever you call it.  I won twice!




Then looking at Black Friday ads.  So fun!


I went shopping that night to a few stores with Lois and Stephanie.  We got home around midnight.  The next day we did a little shopping in the morning then went to a dollar theater and watch the Lego Ninjago movie.  That was a fun movie.  Sadly Lee and I kept nodding off at the very end.  We were both so tired.  After we headed to my mom's house for lunch.  The guys helped redo a ramp in my parent's garage.  The kids raked leaves outside and played and I addressed my Christmas cards.  Stacie, Alyssa, Rebecca, Katie and Shanna helped me.  It was so nice of them!  I got them sent that afternoon!  I beat you Deb!!! People have been so surprised that I got my cards out so early but it helps that I race my sister every year.

Cal and his clementine peel.  Nice!  Outside of my parent's "new" house.


Friday night was parent's night out.  We went to Bangkok Wok.  I couldn't stand the smell of the curry I guess...or whatever spice it was, but I sort of got used to it at the very end and the food we ordered was delicious.  Fun to hang out with everyone.


There was live music as well which was so fun. Clark would have loved this instrument.


The carrot cake was amazing!


Joseph works at a nearby grocery store.  I had to go embarrass him.  So fun!


Lee found Herbie!


Saturday some of us went to the DC temple.  It was the only good day for Lee and I to go.  I did some initiatories and then let Lena go in while I watched her 6 littles.  Lee, Clark, Cal and the rest of Lena's family, Darrell, Katie and Jessica were all in the baptistry doing baptisms.  I bought some movies over the weekend and Darrell asked if we could watch a movie in the Chevy on the way down.  I told him yes.  Clark was so surprised.  We rarely watch movies in our Chevy even though we have two screens for the DVD player.  Clark said: "So all it takes is Darrell asking to watch a movie?"  Ha ha.  Then Clark asked if we could go out to eat.  Um, no.  But we did go to Wendy's and got some Frosty's.
Some of Lena's kids on a walk with me...touching the temple!  The weather was simply gorgeous!


Cal, Steven and Clark.  Steven loves Clark.  It's SOOO cute!


And Steven is SOOO cute!


I got to meet this cute guy, baby Karl!  Lena's 9th baby!  So fun. Though...I saw him on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  But here is an official photo.


Jessica and Karl. The baby was very popular.  Shanna told me that weekend that she wished we had a little baby at our house.  That does sound fun, but I am happy with the ages of my kids! Baby Luke was with us this weekend as well, which was fun...Lois' new little boy.  It was cute seeing the moms with their two babies.


More pictures.  Please come!



Some of the Erekson kids already changed clothes since they were driving home from the temple.


Me, Darrell and Lena.  Wish we would have snapped a picture with Stephanie and Lois as well.




Oh, and Lee was a sport waking up with me at 6:00am to go running!

At the thrift store that evening..... A WHOLE row of ugly sweaters!  Too bad we didn't go on Black Friday. Everything was 1/2 off. 


Later on Stephanie arranged a Foosball tournament which was really fun.  I came in 3rd.  My nephew Eric whipped me. Stephanie won overall.












This was most likely Friday night...but cute Steven wearing Clark's shoes.


Sunday after Sacrament meeting....  Wish Lena and Deb could have been there!


On of the effects on Lee's phone...showing it to Darrell and Co.....


The kids did a group hug Sunday night and kept saying, "Dobby loves you.  Dobby loves you." So funny.


We left about 7pm Sunday evening to head home.  What an awesome Thanksgiving!  We loved it!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend with your family and loved ones! Oh, and it was fun listening to the Dave Ramsey show Thanksgiving Day with my kids....he gave the history of how the Thanksgiving holiday came about in 1863 via Abraham Lincoln.  It became a national holiday, the 4th Thursday in November, to give thanks to our Heavenly Father for all our blessings.  So awesome.  So while it's great hearing about Squanto and the Indians and the Pilgrims, the real first Thanksgiving, as we know it today, was in 1863.

Happy Holidays!!!