Happy Thanksgiving 2010

We had a good Thanksgiving this year - busy but good. It started that morning when we went to my parent's house for a brunch for those of our small group that were here for Thanksgiving. It was really fun to sit and chat with friends in the morning like that! The picture to the left is me and my friend Michelle that morning. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of everyone else and only realized as I downloaded my pictures that I didn't get any of my parents! Need to do better with that. (Never did see the parade - first time in YEARS!! Must not be Christmas since I didn't see Santa enter!)

After the friends left, my mom got busy putting together the side dishes she was making to take to my aunt and uncle's house that afternoon. I put Ellie down for a nap and Ian, Josh and I sat down for a game of Scrabble. My parents ended up leaving us at their house to head to my aunt and uncle's while we finished our game and let Ellie finish her nap. They ended up starting to eat without us. I finally woke Ellie up so we could go before the food was gone! We had a nice evening with my dad's side of the family. All of my girl cousins and both aunts and uncles from that side of the family were there. (Pictures to the left are me, Ellie and Aniston - my cousin Jocelyn's daughter and my cousin Kristin with her hubby Robert). It was a nice relaxing way to spend the day. We had a little fire in the fire pit, munched on food and just enjoyed some time together. It really was nice getting to be with family for the holiday. All of the food was fabulous but I feel pretty good about the fact that I don't feel like I over ate. So much to be thankful for and really realizing what it means to be thankful even when things aren't going the way I would want!

Me and the kids - Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving

I can't believe another Thanksgiving has come and gone already and we're already into December! Even though I was trying to be "prepared" for the season, I'm feeling as though I'm already behind and stressed out!!!! Part of the stress is not having renters for our house in VA yet so that's an expense we weren't ready for. We are hopeful and know that God has a plan and we're trying to be patient and see what that plan is.

As for our Thanksgiving... it was quite nice. We left last Wednesday and went to Brian's cousin's (Deborah) house in Wisconsin. I've never been to Wisconsin so that's another state I can cross of my "been to" list! We arrived there around 8:20pm and let the kids run amuck for a little while then tried to put Ellie down but after an hour and a half nap in the car before we arrived she, apparently, wasn't ready for bed. She ended up staying up with us until we went to bed (at least she was being cute during that time and not screaming) around midnight and since she was staying in our room she went on to sleep when we did and slept in until about 7:30am (which is kind of early for her) but, thankfully, napped well on Thanksgiving. We got up on Thanksgiving and had a yummy breakfast made by JJ (Deborah's husband). Then, we watched the parade and relaxed for a bit and the boys went with JJ to register some deer he'd gotten over the weekend. Deborah and JJ live on 120 acres and it's beautiful! He hunts right out his back door!! Brian's uncle Steve (Deborah's dad) and Judy arrived around 12:30 and we had a nice afternoon while the final preparations were done on dinner. We had 2 wild turkeys JJ got, a "fresh" ham (not cured or anything - straight from the pig), some stuffing, sweet potatoes, corn casserole, bread, zucchini bread (made by me and it's Deborah's and Brian's grandmother's recipe), broccoli and carrots and some home-made cranberry sauce. It was all quite delicious and we were all sufficiently stuffed. After a nice dinner we decided we should go on a little walk to make room for dessert. Then, we came back and had a choice between pumpkin pie, banana cream pie or apple pie a la mode - YUM!!!

Friday we got up and prepared to head back into the "cities". We left JJ and Deborah's around noon and got to the Mall of America (after a stop at Ikea) around 2pm and had a light lunch knowing we were planning to go to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. I had the great idea to get Ellie a smoothie (I make them for her and she loves them) since she wouldn't eat much lunch and I had them add a protein booster since she doesn't eat a lot of meat. Well, that was a mistake! After about 10 minutes she threw it all back up and it just kept coming. I bought her a new shirt after I thought it was over, got her changed and we were looking around again when it all started back up. So, I had to buy her another whole outfit!! (Thank goodness we were at the mall, right?!) It turns out the "protein booster" is made from milk!!! It just confirms for us once again that she is allergic to dairy!!! And, on her face where some of the throw up got she broke out!! It's really frustrating - especially since she doesn't eat much!!

Anyway, we ended up having a lovely dinner that evening at the Cheesecake Factory then called it a night. The next morning we went to Steve and Judy's for a lovely brunch then headed out to look at a couple of colleges for Josh - Northwestern University and Bethel - both Christian colleges. The Northwestern campus, although small, is quite lovely nestled between two lakes. We just realize that it's hard to make a decision about schools when you've only seen a couple and thought it a good idea to see some around here. This picture of Josh is at Northwestern on a bridge that connects to a little island chapel on campus - very picturesque even in winter!!

That evening we had dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant Steve and Judy recommended then headed back to the hotel. We got up Sunday morning and made one last trip to the Mall then headed home! Oh, I should mention that we woke up that morning to an inch and a half of snow! It was beautiful but we were glad to give it a couple of hourse before we got out on it. We arrived back here last night and there's no snow. Now, to get the fall decorations completely put away and get out the Christmas ones!!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving - giving thanks for all of your blessings, we have so many to be thankful for!

How we celebrated Thanksgiving

I wanted to add a separate blog about how we celebrated Thanksgiving this year - aside from being with family and eating. In Virginia I was pretty good about coming up with new ways for us to share things we were thankful for but then I was thrown off last year with going to New York and this year things snuck up on me so I was a little behind but I somewhat redeemed myself. Thanksgiving evening after everyone had gone and it was just us and my parents, I gathered us all together and first we went through Thanksgiving past and read what those years said. The first one I had was from 2004 and I put little pieces of paper out with an empty cornucopia and had people fill out what they were thankful for leading up to the day. On Thanksgiving we read them. It was cute to see Ian's little scribbles. He had the most little papers since he was home all day with me at that time. The next one was for 2005 and I'd made a paper bag book with a slot for each family member. This year we didn't write it down but what we did was play the alphabet game and for each letter we had to say something we were Thankful for. One big thing that Brian and Ian shared from last Sunday at church was our answer to prayer for having a little girl, Eliana. I enjoyed hearing Josh's answers now that he's a little older - he had Q and he said quick to love. I wished I written them all down to save but I didn't. It was just nice to share that time together.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, we are back from Savannah and we had a wonderful time visiting with family. We hope that all of you were able to enjoy time with family and friends over the holiday weekend.

We were able to leave Wednesday at noon for Savannah. After being on the road for a short time, we noticed our car was acting funny... it kept sort of backfiring and did actually backfire a couple of times. I called my dad and asked him what he thought it could be and he said that it could be the timing belt (not good) or the fuel injector. After he thought about it he said that since it was only acting strange at certain times and not all the time it probably wasn't the timing belt as it would happen all the time if it was that. His best guess was that we'd gotten a bad tank of gas. So, when we finally got to a gas station, we got mid-grade gas at Chevron and after that we didn't have any problems - praise the Lord! We made it to Savannah at about 6:30pm Eastern. Not bad... we won't talk about how fast Brian was going! :)

My parents had dinner ready for us and we enjoyed dinner and then played a family game of Apples to Apples that we'd brought with us. It was a nice way to spend the evening.

The next day folks weren't arriving until 4pm so we had some time on our hands. Brian, Ellie and I went for a walk and got home in time to eat breakfast and watch the parade. So hard to believe that we were there, in person, last year for the parade! Last year it was pouring down rain. It looks like they had a good day for it this year. After a good hearty breakfast and finishing the parade, we got ready for the day. While things were cooking and we were waiting for family to arrive, my mom had made some appetizers. Unfortunately, that meant I ate way too many of those and was full by the time it was time to eat dinner!! Those who were able to come were Kim, Eddie and their son Julian (who's a couple of months older than Ellie), Kim's mom, Uncle Roy and Aunt Sandi, Jocelyn and Brett. We had a good time seeing everyone and, of course, stuffed ourselves silly!! Instead of posting individual pictures click here: http://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=lewisfam&p=5bjjie&AID=4975349&Pres=Y to see our pictures from the weekend.

The next day Brian, Ellie, my mom and I got up and went shopping! We did pretty well and had a nice lunch out and by the time we got home, my brother and his boys had arrived. We had a relaxing (well, as relaxing as you can get with 5 boys around) evening and played another family game of Apples to Apples that the boys seemed to enjoy.

Saturday we had a leisurely morning then went to see the movie "Enchanted." My boys had been wanting to see it but it was funny because afterwards Brian asked me, "How in a family full of boys were you able to get us to see a chic flick?" It was a cute movie and the boys seemed to like it but it was a little on the "chic" side. After the movie, we had an early dinner at the mall then went down to River street for the lighting of the Christmas tree and a parade of lights on the water. It was a little chilly but it was pretty fun. Then, we headed home and got the boys to bed.

Both Friday night and Saturday night my brother, my mom, me and Josh played Spades. It was a lot of fun just spending some time that way (Josh and I beat them both times! :)).

Sunday, we got up and enjoyed some time together before getting packed and on the road. We were home by 5pm Central time so it wasn't too bad and we were able to enjoy some down time before the week began.