Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving adventures began on Tuesday at 3:30 when Emily and I picked up Andrew with our loaded car, ready to head to Iowa.  We made one stop halfway through at subway for a quick diaper check and then we were good to go.  We made great time and Emily was a trooper.

At 6:00 Emily started asking to go to bed and was a bit frustrated that we didn’t put her there to sleep.  I introduced her to the wonders of foot rubs and soon she was out for the last hour of the trip.

Wednesday we tried to get some of our to-do list items accomplished, such as fixing my violin, sorting through boxes, and making parts of the Thanksgiving meal. We had a great time hanging out at home and watching Emily discover lots and lots of cool toys. Everyone got to spend time building creations out of duplos during the week.

Grandpa’s RV creation.

Thanksgiving day we made lots of great food, played games while we waited for the turkey to cook, made some more progress on projects, and enjoyed just spending time together.

We had no Black Friday aspirations, but last minutes Christine decided to go make a purchase at Best Buy.  Us girls hopped into the car and returned home in less than thirty minutes, successful and very impressed with how efficient Best Buy can be.   Emily was in heaven  the rest of the trip because Aunt Christine let her play with her old itouch, a luxury she does not get at home.

Christine and I also made our annual gingerbread house.  This is a long-standing tradition that began when I was probably Christine’s age.  My mom would spend days constructing the house and we would spend many days creating elaborate scenes filled with gumdrop penguins.  With just the two of us, and neither of us wanting to spend hours making our signature penguins, we bought a kit of five different homes and created the Moose Homestead.  Each of us got a house.  Our parents got a gumdrop bonfire complete with a roasted marsh mellow.  Andrew and I had a sprinkles sandbox outside of our apartment, which also conveniently had a landing pad for Santa’s sleigh. In Derick’s backyard was a alligator, a tribute to his Florida dwelling.  Brian had a skittles hammock commemorating his Cancun Mexico sleeping arrangements. Christine, the ever amazing gymnast, had a hershey chocolate balance beam.

We also celebrated Christine’s 14th birthday a few days early so we could be there with her.  Pizza Hut Pizza for lunch and cookies and cookies and cream ice cream cake were her choices for lunch.

Emily loved climbing the stairs and running around.  There was just so much to see and explore and we weren’t there long enough for anything to be old. She also found one of Christine’s headbands and insisted on wearing it.

For the first time in months we struggled putting her to bed because she just wanted to go go go.  She would want one more story, one more toy, one more run around the basement.  It was pretty cute actually, but she learned pretty quick that we didn’t want ten more one more things at night and had to go to bed anyway.

Christine and Emily were twins a few of the days we were there.  It is fun to see the two of them together.  When we went to church on Sunday many, many people came up to Emily and I and said, “She (Emily) looks exactly  like her Aunt Christine!).

Grandma providing the entertainment to insure quality smiles for pictures.

Andrew spent the first two days grading and the rest of the trip building a website for one of his classes. He was very kind to relocate his office to my old bedroom so that Emily and I could spend so much time with my family.