Thanksgiving Weekend

The weather couldn't have been better for our Thanksgiving travels.  We were guided by this gorgeous sunset.  Beauty like that makes it hard to keep your eyes on the road... but don't worry, we arrived safely.

We stayed at Steve's parents' house, even though they were out visiting his sister in Las Vegas.  Devon, Tommy, and April came and visited us.  Lily or Amara must've taken these next few pictures with my camera while they were outside playing.  What were they drawing on the driveway? Devon was drawing skeletons.  Well, apparently Amara brought charcoal from our firepit on our vacation.  Why, why, why?

Our Thanksgiving feast was at my dad and Deb's house.  There was a little kids table set up off to the side.

And a couple other tables were  pushed together for the adults.

The feast was plentiful and filling!  So many delectables!  The shredded-sauteed brussell sprouts were new to me this year, and I thoroughly enjoyed them.  We contributed a couple pies and the yams.

Not everyone was there, but we had a blast with those that did come.  Trent and Lyndsi's family, Grandma and Grandpa Blad, Heather, April and Spencer's family, our family, and Dad and Debby made up our crew of cohorts!  How could you not have fun with that bunch?

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Yes, that's Steve chillaxin' in the background.

Baby Mason was April's lap buddy for the feast.  He loved staring at her earrings.

After the main meal, there were games and activities to be had.  Lyndsi had made some adorable salt dough lego men baked in the oven for people to paint.  Lily took some pictures of the ones she did.

This is her bowl of paint after everything got swirled together.

Here are some of the creations.  Really cute!

Here are the ones Lily created.

There was also a gathering of puzzle-put-together-ers.  It was a big puzzle and took a few hours, but it was a beauty when it was finished.

And I didn't get a picture of the 6 pies, but dad's traditional fruitcake made an appearance.  After having a piece, I decided it wasn't as gross as I used to think it was.  Fruitcake must grow on you with age.  It's not on my favorite desserts list yet, but it makes it onto my favorite traditions list, since the making of this holiday fruitcake can be documented back to at least 5 generations, and if my kids make it one day, that will be 6 generations.  There are not many recipes that can claim that in our family.  The recipe has been changed over the years, with an addition here and there by my grandma, and my great-grandma, but I have a photo of the original.  It's even on this blog (click here).

And I thought I'd insert here as well, that I asked Lily what's the one thing she would hope was at our Thanksgiving dinner, and she thought for a minute, then responded, "deviled eggs!" 

I didn't even know we had had deviled eggs at Thanksgiving before, but because she mentioned them, I brought along some of those as well :)

Stephen and I decided to go on a date while we had an opportunity, so we went out to the Riverwoods and tried a fancy restaurant we had never been to before called "La Jolla Groves."  The food was yummy, but the dessert was sub par, even disappointing.  It looked fancy and pretty, but tasted like stale lemon bread from the bread thrift store.  Not worth 6 bucks!  Steve could've gotten 2 Dr. Doom Lava cakes for that price at Denny's, and those are actually DIVINE! We also took a stroll around a toy shop there, but I was feeling tired and cold, so we just called it an evening.

What good times we had this past Thanksgiving weekend.  We were there for the beginnings of the annual build-the-gingerbread-house event for the festival of trees, but that will be for another post. ;)