Thursday (11/24) was Thanksgiving. Originally, Laurin had to work that day so we opted to celebrate our Thanksgiving on Friday. This also allowed the older kids to join the Oliver family for their festivities without it conflicting with ours. However, it turned out that Laurin didn't have to work; still, we proceeded as originally planned. We did get a chance to meet up with all the kids/grandkids at Cracker Barrel for breakfast that morning. (Ice skating, Cracker Barrel, and the Spanish Fork lights have sort of been tradition. To be honest, our Thanksgiving have never really been traditional. Yes, we have our traditional turkey dinner and we've tried to establish certain traditional activities, but some years things get switched up because of other family obligations or like our trip to TN last year.)
After breakfast, we said bye to the older kids then Jeff, Jonas, and I headed home to get a few things done prior to seeing a movie. We had only been home for about a half hour before we got a call from Danny. Without going into too much detail, there was a significant incident that occurred between our boys and a few of the Olivers that caused enough drama that Danny, Jacob, and Amber decided to join us for the rest of the day rather than spend it with the Olivers. (Laurin, Casey, the kids, and Dallin decided to stay.) We all went to see a new movie, Devotion, that told the true story of the first black naval aviator, Jesse Brown, during the Korean War. After the movie, we decided to return to Cracker Barrel for a Thanksgiving meal. I know it sounds a little funny, but it's good traditional Thanksgiving food that we didn't have to make. To end the day, Laurin invited us over to her house to play games. Jeff and I only stayed for a little while, but Jonas and Danny stayed until nearly 11:00 p.m.
The next day (Friday, 11/25), we celebrated our Thanksgiving. So many people's plans changed over the course of the month. We were originally going to have my parents, Michael, Jackie, Jeff's parents, Katie and Greg join us, but all slowly backed out due to various reasons. The Tanners, Scott, and Kat, however, did join us. Honestly, it was nice having just a few people even though we definitely missed those of our family that weren't there. In the morning, the boys went up on West Mountain to shoot while Laurin and I finished meal preparations. Around 1:00 p.m., we all enjoyed a yummy Thanksgiving meal together before the boys took out the pellet guns and the BB guns to shoot.
After more shooting, cleaning up the kitchen, and lots of pie, we grabbed some yummy hot cocoa and headed to the Spanish Fork lights. Jeff put Christmas lights on the dump truck and we all piled in to drive around the lights. I loved watching Carter take it all in. He is finally old enough to recognize the magic that this holidays bring. (As a side note, he saw our Christmas tree a few days later and immediately explained, "Toys!" as he saw all the ornaments. Even Everly was fascinated with the lights on the tree. She was content to lay under the tree and touch the lights.) The other boys were just as excited as they pointed to the various light displays.
However, they were even more excited to get to spend the night! Earlier in the evening, our elf, Jingle, showed up with all the kids Christmas ornaments and even brought a fun game to play. I played the game with the boys then set them up with a movie to watch. They eventually fell asleep but woke up at 3:30 a.m.!! When I saw what time it was, I went out to inform them and encourage them to go back to bed, but they had none of that! I was at least able to convince them to hold off on the craft that Jingle brought them until after I woke up...at a decent hour! I love that Jonas gets to make these memories with his cousins (and I love that we have a basement they can be rowdy in so I can still sleep). When I did get up, we made the Christmas stockings Jingle brought then the boys set off to play while I finally decorated the house for Christmas (we saved the tree until Sunday so Dallin could join us too). In the afternoon, I decided to take the boys to see the new Disney animated movie, Strange World. I knew going into it that I was essentially paying for the boys to take a nap...and I was right! Money well spent if you ask me! They actually did really well for how little sleep they got. After we got back from the movie, the boys were still pretty tired so I put on Home Alone for them and a couple of them (including Jonas) went back to sleep.
Finally, we ended the night with a new event...at least, new to us. Spanish Fork hosts a Christmas lights parade every year. Jordan's family was going to it so Krystle invited us to join. We grabbed some pizza and lots of blankets then enjoyed an hour of festive sights and sounds. It was actually really fun and not to crazy crowded. Jeff even said he would be willing to do it again (although he also said he's ok not to), which is high praise.
I couldn't believe that our weekend was actually over. Sunday was really chill. Like I mentioned before, Dallin joined us for dinner (or left overs because I was more than ok not to cook!) and the boys and I decorated our tree. I love looking at all our memories on the tree. We've really created something wonderful! In fact, we had so many ornaments, we actually had to pick which ones we'd put up this year. We might have to get another tree! It was a really nice weekend. There is nothing better than gathering with family. I loved seeing all the fun the kids had. Plus, there wasn't anything too stressful or crazy. Yes, we packed in a lot, but when you have a good team to work with, it makes it worth it. Now...on to Christmas!
