Thanksgiving 2012



We started off the Thanksgiving celebration with pizza and tattoos on Wednesday night . . . because that's how we party!  Our out of town family arrived on Wednesday afternoon.  Barry had picked out a little surprise for the girls - a Shimmer tattoo pack . . . which naturally they can sing the advertising song for thanks to those commercials!  I have to say, I am a natural tattoo artist :)

Thursday morning started out with the traditional cinnamon rolls and Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade . . . with a little fun thrown in with self portraits . . .

 And fun playing in Chumlee's crate . . . who needs toys?  He thought this was hilarious!

We had to take a little time out for a family picture.

Obligatory picture of the awesome turkey that Mr. Crandall cooked (27lbs!)

Conrad was supervising . . . he doesn't look at all like my brother does he?! Ha!

First up was getting the babies some food!  Clearly Conrad was looking at Evan's plate and was perplexed by Evan's portion size . . .

Evan just thought it was a normal day!

Then there was the cool kids table . . .  

Where people drank Sierra Mist Cranberry out of wine glasses . . .

because that's what cool kids do . . . 

 

And everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving dinner . . . even though it was totally served on paper plates!

Angie and I attempted to go out for some shopping on Thursday night.  We were gone for about 20 minutes - that's how long it took us to drive to Toys R Us and Target and see the stupidity and then come back home.  But I got up at 3am on Friday morning and hit the stores.  I got everything I needed without any issues, stayed under budget, and was home by 6am - it was an extremely successful Black Friday!

Then Evan started his trend of the last few days . . . he wants to sit at the table and drink out of a real cup.  I can only assume it's because he sees his sisters doing it . . . there have been spills, but all in all, I am excited to see him take this milestone step on his own and do such a great job at it.

We also got out all of the Christmas decorations on Friday.  Since we do a real tree, we wait a little bit on that one . . . but the girls were ready to decorate their tree before moving it up to their room.  There is a very precise system in our house that alternates by year.  Whoever puts the star on the little tree, the other person does the star on the big tree.  Marlie certainly didn't forget that Sam did the big tree star last year and immediately gave her the little tree star . . . a job that is taken very seriously!

Then Friday night we headed down to the riverfront to see the Lights on the Cumberland!  All of the cousins were bundled up!

 And we took advantage of getting there early and hit up Santa with no line!

And Conrad didn't even fuss for his first visit to sit on the Man's lap!

 Everyone headed home on Saturday afternoon . . . and Sunday has been spent doing laundry (3 days of no laundry being done, except diapers of course, puts the laundry situation in this house BEHIND!) and cleaning up . . . and of course, rearranging the furniture in the girls' room because they wanted their tree to be right smack in the middle . . . because they sleep with their tree on and want to be able to see it from every point in the room.  And we also put on their Christmas sheets and blankets.

 And while there are 2 letter "e"'s on the tree, a few Sesame Street ornaments, and even some basketball ornaments that I got last year, there is no doubt it is a girl's tree!  It has a pink skirt, is covered in pink and purple snowflakes, and naturally princesses and kittens.  Alas, I will have to get another tree after the holidays on clearance for our little boy.

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday . . . there was family missing, which always stinks, but we were blessed to be surrounded by loved ones and celebrate our nephew's first Thanksgiving . . . and to have Daddy home to enjoy it all with us is something we never take for granted in this house!  And sitting around the table the girls told us they were thankful for their family and that they were thankful for us, their mommy and daddy . . . and that alone makes standing in the kitchen for 8 hours totally worth it!

And now time will fly . . . every year these weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas blow by with awesome times . . . but I am so ready, it's definitely one of my favorite times of the year.