Thanksgiving Weekend

This past weekend was a great one. For the first time in our marriage Eric took the day after Thanksgiving off, so we had that to look forward to along with lots of fun family time!

We started off on Wednesday when Emma's cousin Timothy came over for a sleepover. Emma was so excited about it that for several days before hand she would tell everyone she came into contact with. We had an early dinner of pizza and root beer (the kids were in heaven) so that we could get started on all our other activities.

We had a couple of pumpkins that we wanted to carve for Thanksgiving, just because we thought it would be fun. One of the pumpkins was VERY ripe, and didn't work very well. The other one seemed fine, although by the next day it was quite shriveled.After the pumpkin was carved, we made some cookies. I didn't feel like really making cookies with the kids (I do with Emma all the time, but I didn't want to take up too much time on just one activity) so I had bought some of those sugar cookies with a picture on them that you only need to transfer to a cookie sheet. The kids did that and then started a movie while the cookies baked.They wanted to watch Finding Nemo, and so needed to run get all their Nemo friends to watch with them. Timothy had brought Squirt, so they ran into Emma's room and got Nemo, Dory, and Bruce.
I asked them if they wanted popcorn or cookies while they watched, and they said, "How about both?" Well, normally that wouldn't work, but for a special occasion like a sleepover I caved. They each ended up having 8 cookies and shared the batch of popcorn while drinking more root beer of course!Being a member of this family means lots of game nights, and these kids fit right in. They wanted to play some games, so we introduced Timothy to Emma's snowman game. He seemed to like it.
After the games we made some Pilgrim Hat treats. I made them last year with Emma and they are really cute and easy. I didn't take a picture of them (I just forgot) but here's a picture of what they look like when they're done.
After some more games and a bath for Emma it was time for bed. The kids had so much fun! I think they wore themselves out because they fell asleep fairly quickly.

In the morning they wanted eggs and bacon for breakfast. They finished the bacon before I could take a picture!
Around noon we headed over to my mom's house, where the games were already beginning. We ate around 3:00, and the food was all delicious! The rest of the day was more fun and games. The kids played some games and watched a couple movies. It was a nice and relaxing day.
We are not early risers on Black Friday. Nothing is worth getting up and fighting the ravenous crowds to me. Instead, we had a relaxing morning and went to a couple stores in the afternoon. That evening some family came over to play the Wii with us.

Saturday was great too. A little more shopping after which we watched the Utah/BYU game with my family. It was disappointing that the U lost, but it was more disappointing that the Refs were terrible, and that Max Hall decided to forget that he represents the Church to the world and give that horrible hate filled speech. My brother has had food and drinks thrown on him by BYU fans, but he doesn't hate the school or the students. He still doesn't want them to beat the U, but that's because it's supposed to be a friendly rivalry. Oh well, hopefully future BYU players will try harder to show good sportsmanship and Christlike attitudes so as to make their fans proud of them, and to represent the Church to the world better.

Sunday is always a great day, and today is the first Advent Sunday. It was fun to light the candle on our wreath with Emma. She loves looking at our tree and singing the Christmas songs. I'm looking forward to a fun season with her.