Thanksgiving Reflections

It's been a month since my last post. Time flies when you're having fun! Here is a snapshot of our November:

We took a trip to the zoo on a gorgeous Saturday mid-month. Chris needed to visit the dealership nearby (Columbia, about 90 minutes from our house) to pick up his new car, so it worked out perfectly for us to drop him and go to the zoo until he could meet up with us. We loved seeing the penguins, lions, crocodile and the new kangaroo walkabout.

I was pretty excited to see a festive family activity come home in Sydney's backpack one day early in the month.

It says, "Five Fat Turkeys Are We. We sat all night in a tree. When the Cook came around, we were nowhere to be found. That's why we're up here you see!

Poor Tom Turkey had a major problem, he is afraid of heights and cannot climb trees like his friends. Could your family help Tom out this Thanksgiving season and disguise him so the cook can't find him? (Only until after the holiday, of course) Be creative and dress Tom up, which is better than the cook dressing him, if you get my drift. "

We ended up dressing him up like a snowman. There were some pretty cute submissions, which were all posted on the bulletin board in the school hallway. My favorites were a fish, a guitar, Perry the Platypus and Dora The Explorer. There were also the requisite princess and fairy dress-ups. Fun idea!
Isn't he cute? I love that the orange pipe-cleaner doubles as a carrot and/or a turkey beak!

One of the things we were MOST grateful for this Thanksgiving was that Aunt Kasey and Uncle Jimmie came to share the week with us!

Last time Kasey was here (in September for the Blue Ridge Relay) she asked Sydney about Uncle Jimmie. Syd's response, "Oh, him DIED!" Very nonchalant. Hehe. It had only been 10 months since the kids had seen him, but apparently it was TIME for a visit from UNCA Jimmie!


The kids loved having him here, always ready for a wrestle, our Unca Jimmie. ;) Jimmie made time to spend a day up near the Virginia border doing some genealogy work and the guys even took a trip to the National Whitewater center for some big kid fun. They took a rough ride down the rocky man-made river and tumbled out. Poor Chris got a little more up close and personal with the boulders than his knees liked.

We had an adults (plus Sydney, who had a cough yucky enough not to leave her at swap) date night. We saw a terrible dollar movie and had some awesome mexican food with the best fresh limonada I've EVER tasted!

And the sisters did lots of shopping, cooking, running and creating. Just what we like to do best!


This was after our hilly 8K Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning. It was a cool 49 with misty rain at the start. Pretty perfect for a race day. We ran strong and felt fabulous all the way through. I smell an annual tradition!

We brined our turkey this year, and used rosemary and orange to season it. It was wonderfully juicy! It was so great having 2 cooks in the kitchen, someone to split the work with and someone to chat with all day made it super fun. It made it much less hectic, and the timing worked out perfectly. Double ovens totally pulled their weight this week! (So very grateful for them!)

We had a lovely dinner with some classics (Gpa Cline's berry jello, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes) and some new additions (roasted butternut squash, POM cranberry sauce, sourdough starter rolls). It was wonderful to share with each other what we were feeling most grateful for and really reflect on how blessed we are.


We also spied a design at Anthropologie that I wanted to rush right out and imitate....so, of course, we had to make time! We got Sydney and her BFF Paris together to play, and Shanda, Kasey and I went supply shopping and spent some crafty time working on some bling. K's is a pearl bracelet with pleated grosgrain, it turned out so cute!

The kids were so sad when our guests left. I'm not gonna lie, there were tears! Luckily, we're related, so there's a pretty good chance we'll see each other again soon!

Now we are all decorated for Christmas, getting ready to wrap gifts and preparing for Chris' parents to spend a couple of weeks with us during the Christmas holiday. Chris is taking 2 weeks leave and we're looking forward to LOTS of family time! <3