Thanksgiving Feast 2010

Yum. YUM. Yum....and extra YUM!

That's about all I can say. Ha ha. Who doesn't love Thanksgiving? Food, family, football (well the boys love this one at least), and of course fun! After moving a couple thousand miles across the country we thought we were probably in for some small holiday celebrations -well think again. For the first time, we HOSTED Thanksgiving at our house! How fun is that?

Nate's WHOLE family (mom/dad, sisters and their husbands) came out to Kentucky and spent the holiday with us - and we were thrilled. It was a little cramped - sorry guys...ha ha - but we made it work. There is nothing like family togetherness...sleeping out on the floors and sharing the one bathroom with six people. Good times I tell ya. We just had to make sure we planned out the showers so everyone had hot...er warm water! Ha ha.

The celebrations started with a festive performance by Bella and Sophie in their preschool’s annual Thanksgiving program. Sophie was decked out as a turkey (check out her little feather butt – so cute), while Bella was an adorable little pilgrim. The church that hosts the program did a fantastic job on decorations and even provided a dinner after the program. Everything was amazing, from the girls’ songs to the yummy food we enjoyed. Grandma and Grandpa Hawley’s plane arrived just in time for them to race over from the airport and catch the end of the program and Bella's face completely lit up when she saw them walk in. It was a great start to the week!

With Grandma and Grandpa in town, Nate and I took full advantage and actually had a DATE NIGHT! Not only a date night, but we celebrated our 8th anniversary (where has the time gone?). We did some Christmas shopping, saw a movie, ate out at this fabulous little restaurant called Bella Notte (the pumpkin ravioli were to die for), and even spent the night away from the kids – it was so much fun and MUCH needed! Sometimes it’s just nice to get away and it’s not too often that we get the chance, so were pretty much in cloud nine the whole time.

After our date, we came back home to find not only Grandma and Grandpa, but Cynda and Ben (visiting from Connecticut). This was the official start to a week of games – you see whenever Nate’s family gets together, there is quite a bit of game playing going on. Luckily no one is competitive (yeah right..ha ha) – we have a great time though. Unfortunately during the first part of the week Nate had to go in to clinic, but the girls and I had a blast with our guests. By Wednesday afternoon Nate was off for the rest of the week and Erin and Warren had arrived from California, so we were ready for Thanksgiving.

On Thanksgiving morning, Nate, John, Ben and Warren all went and played flag football for a couple of hours. They came back muddy (lots of rain) and moving pretty sorely – apparently not in game shape anymore, are we boys? Ha ha. While they were playing, we had gotten a lot of the cooking done, so they were welcomed home by the fabulous aroma of Thanksgiving dinner.

Our little house became quite festive with some fabulous Thanksgiving place settings (thank you Walmart Clearance Sale) and cute nameplates I made from fallen leaves – it really just made everything feel so cozy. By the time dinner was done, we were all more than ready to eat, but before sitting down to enjoy our formidable spread, we sat together in the living room to talk about the “thankful” tree. All week the tree had been displayed in our home and people had been placing leaves on its branches, writing down what they were thankful for. What a fun new tradition! Reading each leaf, we captured the spirit of the day as we counted our many blessings.

Dinner was exceptional and of course dessert was amazing. It’s kind of nice to have at least one guilt free day of the year – it’s Thanksgiving, it’d be un-American to not eat like crazy!

After cleaning up dinner (and resting a little bit), we head out for perhaps Bella and Sophie’s favorite part of the week – the new Disney princess movie Tangled! It was cute and the girls loved it. I really liked to see Disney going back to the good old fairy tales and while the music wasn’t quite on par with some of the classics, overall I highly recommend it. Plus you know it’s a hit when the girls start to pretend they are Rapunzel almost right away.

That pretty much sums up Thanksgiving – as you can tell it was pretty crazy around our house, but it was a great time. Thanks everyone for your help and for sharing this holiday with us in Kentucky!

Happy Thanksgiving!