Holiday Cheer

It's snowing outside again. That's the 2nd time since December 1st. Around here, it is very prompt with it's weather shifts to go along with the seasons. It's December, so there should be a blanket of white for the old man and his sleigh! Rob got to use his new, very big, exceptionally early Christmas present- a snowblower. He bought it during the black Friday, our other black Friday fun
but not until after all the sales, because really who has a sale on snowblowers at peak snowblowing time? Um, no one. There was no reason for me to get up either, except my back was hurting and keeping me awake, so I decided to get up and check the sales out. I got to target at 4:45 am and it was a mad house. I found nothing I wanted, so I left and went other places. At Kohl's I found some stuff, but left my basket to go around a corner that was blocked by bodies and had the whole cart stolen! Ah, what a day Black Friday is- all about the me, me, me!! The only good thing to come out of it, was that I went home after the Kohl's incidence and took a nap, then got up and and took Emma out with me to get a few clothes and then out to breakfast. We had a nice time at Bob Evans together! Although it was packed, we decided to take the last two seats at the bar and got our meal within 15 minutes of arriving. It was yummy!
Thanksgiving already seems forever ago. We had a wonderful time with Grandma and Grandpa Thomson. Emma gave up her bed, but took Sam's bed in return. Sam and the boys camped out each night, sometimes in our tent down in the basement, sometimes in their own makeshift fort in their room. Max ended up under the bed a couple of times!

For breakfast we had cinnamon rolls, of course, and fruit. For dinner we had this is the trick to making it look nice when transferring it to a bowl from the pan it was baked in! Isn't Grandma creative! Turkey, mashed potatoes, asparagus, spinach salad (that no one ate, because we were all too full), green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, homemade rolls, the traditional Keck jello- so yummy, cranberry salad, the best apple pie in the world (I don't use her pie crust and I use a combination of Jonathan and Pink Lady apples), lemon pie, and pumpkin cake. I like the cake version much better than the pie version. We made turkeys out of oranges and sour patch kids and drew pictures of what we were thankful for on leaves that I had cut out. We sprinkled these all over the table and then at dinner we each picked up three of them and tried to figure out what the person was thankful for. Sunday, our Sister missionaries came over to share more pie with us. This was a group picture, because Sister Siebel is going home on Wednesday- back to Idaho. And the other Sister who is from Kiritbati (said, Kitibes)- have you ever heard of it- look it up, may be leaving the area also.

While Grandma and Grandpa were here we went and saw the Air Force Museum. We got to go on a bunch of planes that were former Air Force Ones- of course they weren't always called Air Force One. We even got to go on the one that brought JFK back after he was killed. We saw WW2 planes and the beginnings of manned flight. There is still lots more airplanes to see for another day! We also played games with Grandma and Grandpa- the Great Dalmuti, Twister and California Speed! We wore Joe out! Don't you just love when they still curl up like little bugs!
Now Christmas is just around the corner. I think I will go curl up like a little bug, too!