Thanksgiving 2015

We pulled in late-ish Tuesday night, got the kids in bed and chatted with Mom and Dad. Wednesday morning, Dad had arranged for Richie and the kids to go rake leaves at the neighbor's house. Richie was grateful for a work project and the kids were excited to help. When I told them they would be helping rake leaves, they were so excited. "Rake leaves?? I'm great at raking leaves!" said a cute Miles boy.



Later on that day, Mom had a cool craft to work on with the kids. :)


Thanksgiving morning, we met the fam at a park where we were introduced to Pickle Ball. We are a little late getting on the Pickle Ball bandwagon, but it is super fun! The kids ran around and played hide and seek with their cousins to their hearts content. I'm grateful my kids have so many wonderful cousins to play with and learn from. I never worry about hurt feelings or exclusion or anything like that, when they are together. They treat my kids so well and it's the best to watch friendships grow. The weather was perfect, thank you very much SG. It was such an enjoyable way to spend a morning. After a couple of hours, we packed up to get ready to feast!


I got everyone's plates loaded up and handed out, then got to work crafting the perfect Thanksgiving plate for myself. When it was sufficiently full, I started carrying it to the table and had a small, but noticable, physical reaction to the pang of guilt that hit me. I stopped mid-step and almost wanted to put my plate down and say, "What are we doing?" I realize it's not bad for us to have so many blessings, I just was keenly aware of them in that moment and felt acute sorrow for those people who aren't so blessed. I mean, check out that bounty!


To burn off the Thanksgiving calories, we were introduced to another fun game: Nine square. Remember 4 square from elementary school? It's just like that, except there are nine squares and it's up in the air. Lindy tagged along as my partner, Miles stuck with Paris, and Gwen went rock hunting. :)



Friday afternoon I was able to meet up with a few friends from high school (Hi Ani, Laura, Hillary, Jessica, and Jasmine!). I love getting together with old friends. It's so fun to catch up. I brought my camera in to take a picture, then forgot to take any and left the camera at Laura's! Luckily, she was nice enough to drive it over. During this time, the boys were out shooting targets and skeet. Then began the annual grandkid's sleepover! My mom is amazing and hosts all the potty trained grandkids for a sleepover after Thanksgiving every year so the parents can get some shopping done.
This year, the theme was all around hot air balloons. The kids made marshmellow shooters out of balloons and cups, hot air balloon ornaments for our Christmas trees, and she helped them make giant hot air balloons out of tissue paper to be used the next day. My kids chose to have the inevitable meltdown during a game where you try and stomp on balloons attached to everyone's ankles. Miles was the first player out, so he obviously needed to sulk for 20 minutes in the backyard. Gwen tripped not too much longer afterward and scuffed up her elbow. So naturally she cried, inconsolably, for the next half hour. Grandma ended the game not too much after that and gave everyone a prize to calm them down. Ha! The best part of the night however, came when the kids were settled eating pizza and watching "UP" and Richie and I snuck out to have dinner with Jenn and Mike, and Chris and A. After Red Robin, Richie and I treated ourselves to a full-price movie! High rollers!! Dates are so nice. We should have more of them. :)



Saturday, we got ready and then headed to a nearby park to launch our homemade hot air balloons. Coolest activity ever! Uncle Mike brought over some sort of device from his classroom and attached it to Mom's propane tank. If you held the balloon over it for just enough time, it would float for a few hundred feet and then come down. Our balloon had some sort of magic in it because it floated a couple of miles away and out of sight! After launching them all a few times, we let the propane take over and watched them catch on fire and disintegrate up in the air. Grandma also had a helium balloon for each kid and a tag to write something they were grateful for. Then they attached the grateful tag to the balloon and let it go.


I know my grandparents loved/love me, but I don't remember them ever doing cool things like this for us grandkids. Part of that I'm sure is that I came along so late in the game. I hope my kids realize how lucky they are! We had such a fantastic week, but by Saturday afternoon we were ready to head home. We beat bad weather and bad traffic and made it home in time to warm up by the fire and unpack before bedtime. Now it's back to real life. No Grandma and Grandpa here in the morning to make my kids Eggo's while I sleep in. No more mama to braid my hair. It was a heavenly break, but now it's back to reality. :)