Thanksgiving '09

We had an absolutely wonderful long Thanksgiving weekend. My parents flew in Thanksgiving morning while I baked my second pie of all time. It didn't turn out quite as pretty as my first pie, but tasted yummy. I also brought a green bean casserole to the big dinner. We went up to my Aunt Barbara and Uncle Terry's house in Ogden for Thanksgiving dinner. It was such a delicious dinner. The kids were well behaved and I hardly saw Weston the whole time because he was playing with cousins (love it!). I got to see some of my cousins from out of state and we just had a great time visiting and playing games. Davin provided some good post-turkey entertainment by just being himself. We stayed as long as Davin lasted and really enjoyed our Thanksgiving Day.

I did some early Black Friday shopping by myself. It was pretty successful. I got almost all the stuff I wanted. After my first 2 early stops I went and had breakfast with Mom at the hotel and then she went with me to the other stores. Later in the morning we packed up the kids and we all went to Thanksgiving Point to visit the Dinosaur Museum. The kids love it and Dad had never been. He really enjoyed it, even though we rushed him through with the 3 year old attention span. After the museum we all had lunch at the Thanksgiving Point Deli. Mmm. That's all I have to say about that.
The kids were supposed to come home and nap, but alas, they had other plans. Instead we headed over to my parent's hotel to swim. The hotel they stayed in had a little water park inside complete with kids play structure and adult water slide. It was really fun. It took a little while for us to coax Weston onto the kids slide, but once he did it he was hooked. We were all pretty tired, so after our swim we got dry and warm and went out for pizza.

Saturday was my big concert at the Tabernacle. It was also the big game (BYU v. Utah). I had to be at the Tabernacle by 2pm for rehearsal followed by 5:30pm and 7:30pm performances. We kept tabs on the game from our cell phones though and I was bummed that I missed it. It may have been worse for Ian though, who got to see most of it, but missed the big overtime finish. He must really love me. In case you hadn't heard BYU won! Go Cougars!
My concerts went very well. It was really cool to sing in the Tabernacle. I was so glad that so much of my family were able to come hear me sing too. I really appreciated the support and I hope they all had a good time.

After the last concert we looked at some of the Christmas lights on Temple Square. We ran into my Aunt Amy and her family from Las Vegas! They were in town for Thanksgiving too. It was fun to see them.

Sunday Mom and I were supposed to sing a duet in Sacrament Meeting, but I woke up without any voice at all. I drank mint tea with lots of honey and sucked on cough drops all through the first 2 hours of church. Right before Sacrament we snuck off to see if I could sing at all. It was rough. We switched our parts around a little so I didn't have to sing alone as much and decided to go ahead and sing it. I am actually still slightly embarrassed that anyone thinks that's really how I normally sound. Mom sounded beautiful though.

Sunday was such a nice day! We seriously did nothing. We relaxed. I took a nap. We watched "The Prince of Egypt." We had a nice dinner together and played some games. I loved it. Hooray for being home Sunday nights again!

Monday Ian had to go back to work. Boo. We missed him. I worked on getting the house decorated for Christmas. It was fun. Mom helped me. I did a garland with a big fun bow on it on top of the desk. It really helps make the den feel more festive. Usually it's the least decorated room. Ian decided to come home early to take my parents to the airport. Since this week is going to be pretty busy we decided to go get our Christmas tree last night too. It really worked out good since we were able to leave a little earlier and not be up all night decorating the tree.

Davin was so cute running around all bundled up looking at the trees. We found a good one and got it home and lit while the kids watched Frosty. Davin thinks the lights are the coolest thing ever. He's just so adorable right now. Weston got to stay up a little later and help put on some ornaments, but this year I got to do the tree with fewer ornaments and with the colors I wanted. I did mostly red, gold, and silver. I made the pretty bows too. I love how it turned out. It officially looks and smells like Christmas in my house now.
This morning Weston said "Mom, I'm kind of sad that Grandma and Grandpa aren't here anymore." Me too. We had such a nice time with them and both the boys just loved having Grandma and Grandpa to play with and to read to them.
I am looking forward to all the fun things planned for December and for the weeks ahead to celebrate Christmas.