Thanksgiving Break

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. Boogs and his Dad went hunting, so I had the house to myself for a few days. They came back in time to get things ready for Thanksgiving Day. On Thanksgiving Day, my family came over and we had a great meal, time to visit, played games, and watched football.

We forgot to do a group pic this year but I did remember to bring out our "thankful leaves".  It is fun to read leaves from previous years and add new ones each year.

 We played Codenames Pictures. It is a word association and deduction game. It was a lot of fun.

We also played "Word-o-rama". (Adaptation of The Blogess' CrapScrabble) We took out a bunch of letter tiles, each player grabbed a handful, then made up a word and a definition. The rest of the players had to decide if your word was believable or not. Some of my favorite words: Zooyhathaing - Zookeeper leading hatha yoga class for the animals, teenagoney - agony of raising a teenager, bumpdabang - when you stub your toe on a corner.

Boogs had a friend over for the weekend. The boys wanted to sit around and play video games all of the time. I "made" them go to a trampoline place. They had fun.

The next day, I made them take a hike with me to the park.

The path was very overgrown. The sky was beautiful.

 The boys had fun even though the playground equipment was way too little for them.

 Ummmm... I don't think that is how that is supposed to work.

 I found a spot to relax and look at the clouds while they ran around.

The day before, the boys had made up a ridiculous and funny story after seeing the number 14 carved in a tree. They insisted I take a picture of the park sign because the address was 1414. Whoa, weird coincidence.

Our day ended way too fast. We had to take J2 back to his family. We met J2's mom at Hillcrest Cemetery in Temple. It is close to the halfway point between our houses, about an hour away from home. We read many of the historical markers throughout the cemetery.

We also looked for the oldest marker.

We had to make a stop at Buccee's before we parted company. Buccee's is a humongous gas station/convenience store. The boys grabbed a few toys and played around the shop until it was time to go. 

We were sad for our holiday week to come to an end. Luckily, Christmas break is coming soon.

This post is linked to:

Thanksgiving 2016

Boogs and I were out of school for the week of Thanksgiving. We played with friends, watched a lot of tv, and prepared for hosting Thanksgiving dinner for 19 people. We took time to go see the new JK Rowling movie - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Boogs LOVED the movie!

Daddy took Boogs to get his mop of hair cut. Boogs has decided to let his hair grow long. I wonder what that means to him. He is such a cutie.

Boogs took some time this week to start working on his idea for Daddy's Christmas gift. Here is a sneak peek. Yes, he is wearing shorts without a shirt because it is November in Texas. Boogs had fun using the spray paint. We tried not to get it all over us.

Thanksgiving Day was busy at our house. It was fun to have family over for a big meal. We ran out of room at the big table so Boogs, Poppa, and little J sat at the card table.

 The rest of us squeezed around the big table. We were definitely elbow to elbow.

Daddy took on the big job of separating the meat from the turkey bones.

After dinner, people split up into different areas of the house. Some watched football, some watched a movie, some played in the playroom, and some took naps.

The house felt very quiet after everyone left.  It was a great day.

Thanksgiving 2013

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday so that more of our family could get together. There was lots of food, fun, laughter, and stories. Boogs really looks forward to hanging out with his cousins.

Every year, we pass out leaves for everyone to write down what they are thankful for. Some years, we make a Thankful Tree with the leaves. This year we attached our leaves to Boogs' Thankful Turkey craft. Boogs said it looked like the leaves were trying to bury the turkey.

We almost had enough room at the big table for everyone, only had to sit three at the kid table.

The food was good this year. I am not the best cook so sometimes things don't turn out how they should (burnt crust on apple pie). We had turkey, ham, Daddy's stuffing, roast with potatoes, green bean casserole, salad, veggies, GF rolls, wheat rolls, and way too much dessert.

This is the only group shot of the family I got that was not blurry. Unfortunately, Gabriel was pushing up his glasses. We missed my brother and his wife, but he had to work.

Boogs and Little J (who is all of the sudden not so little anymore) played Skylander for a good part of the afternoon.

 The big cousins were upstairs playing other games.

 Movie time!

 My honey and I spent a lot of quality time together cleaning up the kitchen.

 Boogs and Daddy had a special song to share. They played Amazing Grace for Nonnie.

This year is flying by so quickly. Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Boogs has been out of school all week. I am thankful for the extra time we have been able to spend together. I only got around to making one story themed lunch this week and of course it had to be a Thanksgiving themed lunch.

Arthur's Thanksgiving by Marc Brown
Arthur gets chosen to be the director of the Thanksgiving play and things do not run as smoothly as he hoped they would. In the ELB lunchbox: pb&j Arthur sandwich, cheese leaves, strawberry turkey wattles, and a turkey made of veggies.

We read several Thanksgiving themed books this week. One of my favorites that we read each year is The First Thanksgiving by Linda Hayward. Boogs and I also watched The Animated Hero Classics: William Bradford and the First Thanksgiving. Boogs and I discussed, compared, and contrasted these two stories about the first Thanksgiving.

Boogs was an excellent helper this week. He made sure his room and playroom were clean and ready for company. He also helped out in the kitchen on Wednesday while I was making a couple of pies.

Boogs insisted on eating a fresh cranberry and discovered how sour they taste.

He measured and mixed all of the ingredients for our Cranberry Apple Pie.

Boogs used a lot of muscle to core the apples with our apple corer.

He used his safety knife to slice apples. He told me it was much easier to dice apples into chunks than is it to slice them into thin pieces.

Boogs did a great job crimping the edges of our pie crust.

Tada! Our finished Cranberry Apple Pie. We can't wait to eat it today.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I better get off of the computer and get my turkey in the oven.

This post is linked to the Bento Bloggers & Friends Thanksgiving Linky Party

Thanksgiving Lunch at Boogs' School

Boogs bought his school lunch on Friday, the day of their Thanksgiving Feast. Here is a quick pic of us at school together.

I love his turkey headband. 

I love this little guy!