Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Our family enjoyed celebrating out of state with my Grandparents. Here are the pictures from our weekend:

This photo was taken at almost 11 o’clock on Tuesday night. Sleeping bags, clothes, camera bags, and more littered my room! I didn’t get home from dance until 9:30 p.m., and I had to finish all my packing!

The bathroom didn’t look much different. J Mind you, our house doesn’t always look like this! It’s just a bit chaotic before a vacation.

Wednesday morning we were able to pull out on time. We stopped along the way for lunch and met some friends-of-friends from a different part of Michigan! When we got back on the road, I was able to take a turn at driving for around an hour. Thankfully, the traffic wasn’t too heavy, even with the holiday approaching.

We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa’s house mid-afternoon. It always feels good to arrive after a long day in the car!

Once we settled in, I enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate and visited with my Grandparents.

For dinner that evening we ordered sub sandwiches! There’s nothing like a hot meatball sub and brownies for dessert on a cold night!

After dinner, Daddy showed Grandma and Grandpa the pictures he had taken in Asia during his last two trips there. I’m amazed 5 people were able to fit on the couch!

On Thursday morning, most of us were up early to eat breakfast and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

While we watched the parade, Mom and Grandpa talked Christmas gifts with the laptops.

The weather was unusually warm on Thanksgiving, and we were able to sit out on the screened-in porch during lunch. The temperatures outside were in the upper 50’s, but the porch temperature climbed up to the 70’s with the sun shining!

While we were eating lunch, one of the neighbors brought over a delicious pumpkin spice cake that was enjoyed on the spot! J

After lunch, we decided to burn off our calories in advance of our Thanksgiving dinner. So we walked through the neighborhood, and down through the nursery (above) to the train tracks.

Train tracks make for unique perspective pictures.

All of us (minus Mom taking the picture) down at the tracks.

Mommy and Daddy. Don’t they make a lovely couple?

Then it was time to head back to set the tables and prepare for our feast! Here is the large table set with the fancy china.

Before we sat down to enjoy our feast, Daddy read aloud the Thanksgiving Proclamation from George Washington. It was very beautiful!

We enjoyed a delicious feast of turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, dressing (stuffing), green beans with ham, cranberry relish, corn, and rolls with butter. It was satisfying! All food was compliments of Bob Evans Farmhouse Feast! J

Of course, we had pumpkin and pecan pie with whipped cream for dessert. After finishing this feast, we all took naps! J

We slept in on Friday morning. Brunch included orange cream danish, cheddar cheese, bananas, oranges, and orange juice. It was a summer-colors breakfast!

Friday was spent mostly at home. During the morning you would find most of us reading. Here Rubia reads “Cassie.” Across the room from her, Roma read a historical fiction book, while Daddy read an instruction manual on trimming hair. Ben was reading the novel “Courageous: Honor Begins at Home,” and I was reading “The Naked Communist.”

Later in the morning, Josiah got his first “home haircut” given by Daddy. It turned out quite nicely!

We ate a lunch of Thanksgiving leftovers from the day before, and in the afternoon I went out with my Grandparents to the beauty salon, so that Grandma could get her hair done. While we were gone, Ben cleaned up outside while Daddy did a few fix-it projects. They also brought down the Christmas tree from the attic and set it up in the living room!

For dinner on Friday night, we enjoyed pizza (of course) with popcorn, carrot sticks, and for dessert, apple pie with whipped cream. We certainly ate well all weekend!

Daddy, Grandpa, and Grandma all squished on the love seat after dinner.

I love this picture! J It’s so inspiring for my siblings and me to have Grandparents who have celebrated 56 years of marriage and still love on each other.

We had to leave my Grandparents house late-morning on Saturday. We were trying to beat the holiday traffic by leaving a day earlier than usual. After a long afternoon of driving, we stopped by Cabela’s to buy some winter camping gear for Ben.

While they shopped for boots, gloves, and snowpants, we enjoyed the amazing display of animals on the “mountain.” The exhibits are amazing and many of the animals were real at one time.

A wolf chasing down a caribou on one side of the display.

All of us kids in front of one display.

We arrived home safely later that evening. We had a wonderful trip, and we’re so thankful that we could spend Thanksgiving with our family!