Thanksgiving 2016

We had a little bit of an unconventional Thanksgiving, but it worked out great.

As we all know, Olivia is a holiday lover.  This year, since she works with a calendar daily, she wants to make sure no holiday is forgotten.  So as soon as Halloween ended she started talking about Thanksgiving (as opposed to other years where she would just skip right on to Christmas).  She wanted to make sure it was decorated for, and celebrated.  She immediately started planning a feast.

So I decided to just go with it and let her be as involved as she wanted.  The first thing I had her do was to make a placemat for each person.

Olivia was suppose to help me with this feast, but it ended up being Logan who was the helper.

 Olivia was too busy talking on the phone to grandma and drawing/writing books.

Logan loves being a helper, and is always asking.  He was so happy to be able to help without having to take turns with his sister. :)

As soon as we were done with our night before prep, I covered the table with our fun tablecloth.  I got it from Target.  It was a paper type material that you could color.  I knew it would be perfect for our kid friendly feast.

As soon as Olivia realized she could color on the table, she was all in.  Our family sat and colored together for a while.

We set the table and sent the littles to bed.

It's nearly impossible to get Logan to take a staged picture.  So this is the best we could do.

We don't usually put all of the food on the table.  I guess it comes from our tiny condo days, but I always just fill our plates and them serve them at the table.  But Olivia insisted that our table be full for the "great feast", so that's what we did! 

I'm thankful for these 3!

Soon after our lunch they hit the road.  Michael's cousin (and his family) and aunt and uncle now live in a suburb of Austin.  We got a last minute invite for Thanksgiving.  Obviously I had to work, but I sent the rest of them along to have fun and enjoy family time.  It was a 3 hour drive, and they got there in plenty of time for dinner.

Michael with his Aunt, Uncle, cousin Timmy and 3 out of 4 of his kids.  Somehow his wife and daughter missed the picture.

I guess Logan took right to their youngest son Ian.

They all had a blast.  They jumped on the trampoline, played with dogs, played hide and seek, took golf cart rides, got to eat ice cream and popcorn in the same night...

Meanwhile, I was dealing with the craziness that is Black Friday.

I went in on Thursday at 5:30, and worked until about 12:30.  Then, since no one was at home waiting for me, I walked around and shopped for a bit.  I'll be honest, though.  When you combine my desire for a simpler life with having less, while watching people completely lose their mind over material possessions and "the it toy"... I didn't buy much.

I was able to sleep in Friday morning.  Then I spent most of the day drinking coffee and binge watching the new Gilmore Girls on Netflix.  I also wrapped some Christmas gifts.  It was a nice, quiet, relaxing day.  Which is just what I needed. Then it was back to Target for more Black Friday craziness.

Overall we had a great holiday.  It was simple.  And simple is good.