Grandma

Waiters

Our dessert waiters for the evening.

Nighttime Entertainment

The boot hockey crew.

Alex and Uncle Brant vs. Landen and Uncle David

While the boys were playing boot hockey, the girls and I were making many round around the yard on the sled.

Walking on the Creek

Snowmobile Ride!

Grandma Elaine's neighbor Chris was kind enough to take Alex on a snowmobile ride one night while we were in Minnesota.  He even let Daddy drive the snowmobile too.  Lots of fun!

Cousins

We love Grace!

Julia and Mackenna loved spending time with Grace on Thanksgiving.  I bought a few kinds of nail polish and Grace was kind enough to give the girls pedicures.  They were very excited!  They also did lots of art work together, which was fun.  Thanks, Grace, for keeping them entertained!

Thanksgiving!

We had a fun Thanksgiving in Minnesota.  Nicol and her family and Ryan joined us for dinner and dessert.  Alex and Landen had fun being servers of fruit and dessert.  Mackenna and Julia loved Grace, who colored with them and did their nails.  It was fun to see everyone and spend some time visiting again.

Long Ride Home

When you are stuck in the car in traffic for five hours, you do silly things, like wear your turkey puppet on your head!

Puzzles!

Another fun activity was to put together puzzles.  We had put together our own puzzles a few too many times, so I ran out to the grocery store on Thanksgiving morning to get something that would challenge us for the time that we might be indoors (especially since it gets dark at 5pm).  I bought a 300 piece puzzle and here is the finished product.  These kiddos love puzzles!

Turkeys

We make these thankful turkeys every year and it is always interesting to see what the kiddos come up with as far as what they are thankful for.  Alex's list was:  bed, Mom, Dad, Julia, Legos, school, food and house.  Not a bad list, right?  Julia's list was food, edamame and peas.  Awesome!

We made turkey puppets on a different night, when things were getting a little bit stir-crazy.  Julia had one crazy turkey!

Thanksgiving and Happy Birthday, Xena in Tahoe!

 Xena's birthday cake.  Duck liver, heart and gizzards, cream cheese, rice and cheddar cheese garnish.

 The family at dinnertime.  We made our traditional roast duck with the trimmings, minus a few things, since we weren't at home.  

Xena devouring her cake.  It was gone in about 45 seconds.  Could hardly get a picture!  The birthday girl celebrated her 9th birthday.  Happy Birthday, Xena!

Sandhill Crane Thanksgiving

Since we had an early Thanksgiving, we spent our actual Thanksgiving in Lodi with the sandhill cranes.  As has now become a bit of a tradition around Thanksgiving, we made our annual trip to McDonald's too.  Once a year is really enough for that place ;-)  The weather was alot nicer this year than is year's past, so we didn't even need our hot chocolate.  Alex and Julia both enjoyed seeing all of the birds and taking turns with the binoculars.  Julia was also, of course, impressed with the moon, which is something that she loves to see these days.  It is always amazing to me how beautiful the sight of these birds coming in for the night is.  The sounds in addition to the sight are truly amazing and the pictures just do not do them justice at all.  This will definitely be a tradition that we stick with because it is always so enjoyable.

An Early Thanksgiving

 Little cowgirl ready for Thanksgiving

 Alex and Tadhg on the Mayflower

 Julia checking out the setup

 Rory and Julia enjoying the meal

 Over 21 table with mood lighting...ha!

 More of the Over 21 table.

 The Under 21 table with the fabulous 70's chandelier, complete with fake candles.

Under 21's enjoying the meal.

We had a nice early Thanksgiving on Saturday, since Ah Mah and Ah Kong will be leaving to go back to Singapore tomorrow.  We had eleven adults and nine kids, I think, so it was a pretty busy place.  Thanks again to our ex-box room, which also serves as our banquet hall.  Luckily, it is big enough that we were able to get everyone in the same room to enjoy the meal.  Thanks to all of our friends who pitched in and brought yummy food and the great company to make it a success!