Dear Family and Friends,

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  Best part of this Thanksgiving for me arrived Tuesday night with my parents and sister coming to visit.  Weeks like this make me long to be back around family in California, then I look at cost of living out there and reality hits once again.  But it truly was wonderful to have family around and Jason and his family were able to join us for Thanskgiving day and for a trip to the movies.  So life felt very complete.  It also is strange how when my parents visit I always have a bit of a wake up call when I have that moment of looking at our family and realizing we have some serious work to do ie do our kids really act this way?  am I always nagging like this?

Robyn continued to be sick this week.  It was the cough that would not end.  So we had lots and lots of mom/daughter bonding time.  I am just a little bit excited and feeling a little bit guilty about it, that she goes to school tomorrow!  She came down early Tuesday morning dressed for school, hacking away with bloodshot eyes and bags, sobbing that she would miss the kindergarten Thanksgiving feast.  She had her pilgrim costume all ready.  Instead she stayed on the couch with a barbie movie and made a smoothie/cookie run.  She said the day was almost as good as going to school.

Wednesday was spent in a flurry of baking and taking Macho to the vet.  The theme for this week as far as animals are concerned is "he is NOT worth it!".  Last week we thought Macho broke his leg in a fight but then he recovered.  Turned out that he had gotten a bite that had turned into an abscess.  So meanies that we are we skipped the vet doing surgery and putting in a drain.  Instead we got antibiotics and morphine for him and manly Jeremy (buco good husband points going on here) spent every morning and night squeezing out all the pus and blood to drain the abscess out.  And now Macho besides his bald leg thinks he is back to normal.
To top the evening off we went to a roller skating rink where my sister Christina showed off her roller derby skills.  The rink was pretty empty so our kids could zoom all around.  Taylor likes the speed and the disco ball lights as we do laps around.  And then we sat around that evening swapping kids and fluids stories - so much room for humor there.

My brother Peter sent Spencer an old GPS unit.  Spencer thought Christmas and birthday had arrived early in our house.  He dragged grandparents on several geo-cache hikes throughout the week and was wrapped up in his own little world for the rest of the week.  He gives his first talk today - hence a crabby Saturday as he dragged his feet on what to write.  My favorite quote of the week was from him, "Mom, I don't have any thoughts.  I never have!".  That kept me from strangling him in frustration.
Thursday our house was full of cousins and turkey.  We left Jeremy, Jason and Taylor watching football and went on our annual hike up to Battlecreek Falls.
Robyn after laying in bed for a week, acted quite wimpy and wanted assistance most of the way.  Of course on the way down, she threw off the pretense and took off on a run to catch up with Grandma.  I love being outside on Thanksgiving with sunshine, yellow leaves and kids exploring.  Makes me so grateful for this life we lead.  Then we returned home to cheeseball, a really fun puzzle and pie.

Friday Spencer went off to a robotics merit badge class for the day while the girls headed off to paint pottery.  Seems like a strange thing to do but we had a lot of fun visiting and trying to think creative thoughts.  Robyn was done long before the rest of us but was a good sport about sticking around.
Then we headed off to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights, freeze our tushies, and enjoy some really good Mexican food.  Taylor made me smile as he was looking around at all the lights and then was just smiling with glee as he downed horchata and quesadillas.

Guess who brought his camera?  :)

Allison is in a non-picture mode lately.  This set-up reminded me of the Dr. Suess book where they all do each other's hair.

Saturday we broke out the Christmas decorations and my family running a few errands.   Allison and Robyn managed to put our tree together by themselves which considering its much abused state is quite an accomplishment.  And we met up with Jason and cousins for a trip down memory lane watching the Muppet movie.  Kids by then were so wired they were literally dancing around singing Christmas songs and bouncing off walls.  My family fled to the airport relieved to leave the madness I think as we held back the sniffles.  It was so wonderful to just sit and visit.  How can sitting around and talking about little things feel like such a big thing to me? 


After the festivities of the week our kids crashed last night and Taylor and I enjoyed a morning of Christmas music and a quiet household.  It felt wonderful for all of us.  And today we finish off the last of the turkey and pie!


Hope you each had a great Thanksgiving,   This article made me smile today and count my blessings.

Heather