Thanksgiving

My parents and 2 youngest sisters Gwen and Blair came for the week of Thanksgiving. As always, it's heavenly and a blast for all of us. They got here Monday night. We watched The Voice. Tuesday morning we went to Short Pump mall to go to H&M. Josh and Emma loved showing them our mall we love and go to a lot :-).

That afternoon we went thrifting, out to dinner, and my dad, Gwen, Blair, Brandon, and Josh went to the UVA men's basketball game while my mom, Emma, and I went to the fabric store to get fabric for my tree skirt my mom said she'd make for me!

 It turned just how I dreamed!!!

Wednesday morning we watched The Voice results that we'd missed the night before. While the kids napped my dad and I went to Lowe's to pick out my first real Christmas tree! He knew what to look for and was strong enough to grab them to hold them up to see how they looked and smart enough to know about the different types of trees and what to look for. He was also strong enough to put it on top of the van and smart enough to know how to tie it on. Strong enough to carry it in the house and smart enough to teach me how to string the lights. All that "Dad" stuff :-)

We also did some prep work for Thanksgiving and got some food made ahead of time.

We had to make room in the freezer...

The men getting their "brine" on.

Wednesday while the kids napped we made Harry Potter wands! It seems to be a tradition to make some sort of impromptu craft/creation at some point during the week. Also while we were sitting around the table we brainstormed songs Dad sang to us growing up and recorded ourselves singing them to send to my aunt Laurie who had asked us to.

Everyone got some snuggle time in with the kids.

Thanksgiving! 

Getting the turkeys ready with Dad bright and early. Josh was hands-on. Emma, not so much.

This year Brandon injected his turkeys with a buttery liquid of some sort. Every once in awhile he'd inject too much in one spot of turkey so another part of the turkey would start spraying it out. It was funny, maybe you had to be there :-)

Gingerbread houses

Almost time to eat!

Dinner was amazing, and verrry filling. Somehow we made room for pie later. There's always room. And unfortunately we were out of milk and eggs and I had to go to Walmart. That was an adventure with all the crazy Black Friday sales going on. I literally only had milk and eggs in our cart while everyone else had carts full of toys and the lines went all over the store. But every checkout register was open so it went really fast. It could've been worse. Oh and also, all day whenever he had a spare minute Brandon was out in the van installing my early Christmas present of a new stereo system- a touchscreen, bluetooth, usb, dvd playing, amazing life-changing awesome stereo. He used his incredible tech knowledge and skills to install that bad boy all on his own to save money. What a dream he is. My dad kept him company which was cute. Then we all went to bed early.

Friday we turned on the Christmas music and decorated the Christmas tree.

Grandma and Grandpa made these wooden toys from kits with Josh. He loved it and plays with them all the time.

 Friday night we watched a movie and Saturday morning we said goodbye. Oh man it's always the worst day when they leave. I just love my family so much. It stinks to live so far away.