Thanksgiving 2011

We had a very fun Thanksgiving this year.

Having family near by to spend the holidays with has taken on a whole new meaning.
It something I have taken for granted,
but now I know just how important it is to have someone to spend the holidays with.

The closest family we have is my uncle, who lives about 3 1/2 hours away.

So, Thanksgiving morning, we packed our little car, and started driving around 7:00 a.m.

This is what our Thanksgiving consisted of...

Uncle Russell carving the turkey...

Austin and Yureli making delicious food...

A wonderful Thanksgiving feast.... we forgot to get the potatoes out, 

so we ate them the next day. :)

Delicious Italian Sodas... I think I want to make that one of our traditions.

It was a nice little fancy drink that tasted yummy!

Thanksgiving night, we busted out the Wii and played Michael Jackson: The Experience,

complete with a sparkly glove...

We had some "friendly"competitions going on. 

Brandon (in the red shirt) and Ava danced to every song...

and we were even able to get Russell and Nate to play against each other.

Brandon loooooves the camera!

Ava boogied the night away...

(P.S. I just love this pic!)

And here I am in all my glory....

I kicked Nate's butt about 3 times...

I don't even know why he was so surprised that I've got some dance skills.

I mean, I was co-captain of the cheerleading squad and on dance company....

Heelllloooo.....

Friday morning, I went Black Friday shopping with Yureli and Martha.

We had a blast!

Friday was spent just lounging around.

Ava and Brandon played for hours in the play room.

When Ava usually plays with kids, 

I hear some whining here and there,

and there is the occasional tattling,

but these two literally played for hours without any whining or tattling.

They played camp...

Halle walked around with socks on her hands the whole day... I'm not really sure why.

And they played foosball.....

and they also read books, played music, climbed through tunnels...

You name it, they played it!

We left Saturday afternoon, and we were so sad to leave.

It meant so much to us that Russell and Martha opened up their home to us.

Russell has always lived far away from the rest of his brothers and sisters,

so I don't know him as well as I do my other aunts and uncles.

It was really fun to get to know him and his little family.

They have a beautiful home and they made us feel so warm and welcome.

Martha gave me an apron and took me out to breakfast, and she even had a craft for us to do.

The first three weeks in November,

I was battling another round of homesickness.

We have all been really sick, and I was at my wits end

trying to take care of my girls as well as myself.

Then Nate got sick, and I had to take care of him,

and I just felt as if everything was crumbling down around me.

I just wished that I had family near by to just take my kids for a day

so that I could rest and catch up on some sleep...

Living far away from family is hard.

It's a lot harder than I ever thought it would be.

I have always been a fairly independent person,

but this is really stretching my independence.

Being able to go to Russell and Martha's house was the cure for my homesickness.

Although they live a little ways away,

I know that we can always take a weekend and spend it there.

In turn, I hope they will come and visit us soon.

We have already started making plans to go to the Oregon Zoo and the Seattle Zoo.

:)