Thanksgiving Weekend 2013

This weekend was such a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family and food.  Thanksgiving Day was great.  Eric and I woke up early and made some dinner rolls and then participated in our ward's Turkey Trot.  We walked around the neighborhood for well over an hour visiting with people from the ward before coming back to our home to finish getting everything ready.  This year I was assigned to make pies so I made an apple, pumpkin, and Mississippi Mud pie and then bought frozen cherry pie.  I also made dinner rolls for the first time and they turned out awesome.



We headed over to my parent's house for dinner.  My dad always fries a turkey and my mom bakes one.  We got to my parent's house just as they were putting the turkey in the frier.  This was Jake's first thanksgiving home since his mission and he decided he wanted to banjo the turkey into the frier.  First, banjo-ing adds to the whole redneck effect of frying the turkey and second, he served his mission in Scotland where they celebrate Roger Burns day by eating haggis.  When they bake the haggis, they play bagpipes and "pipe the haggis in."  Overall, it was pretty funny.




Jake's friend David from Scotland joined us for Thanksgiving.  He's 43 years old and he's special needs so his comprehension level is much lower than his age.  He's saved his entire life to come to America and come for Thanksgiving.  It was wonderful to have him with us.

Dinner was great.  Sticking with tradition we all went around the table and said something we were grateful for.  I said I was grateful that Jake was home this Thanksgiving, but there are so many other things I'm grateful for as well.
  • I'm grateful for Eric - he's truly my better half.  
  • I'm grateful for loving parents and siblings.  I can honestly say that the members of my family are my best friends.  
  • I'm grateful to be a member of the church.  It's molded my life for the better and made me so happy.
  • I'm grateful to have a great job that I love.  My job has given Eric and me so many opportunities aside from just monetary benefits.  I love working with my Dad and my sister as well.  It makes work much more enjoyable.
There are many other things to be grateful for this Thanksgiving season, but this is what comes to mind today.  We have been so blessed in our lives.  

After dinner, we visited and napped.  Me, my mom, and David played a game of Phase 10 and then watched Elf and the Polar Express.  Kristin brought Skylee over, which was wonderful of course.  I just can't ever get enough of that sweet baby girl.  She's old enough now that Eric enjoys her too!  It's fun to see the two of them interact. 



Eric and I aren't great Black-Friday shoppers, but this year Eric needs new dress clothes for his internship so we stopped by Jos. A. Bank at midnight to get some dress clothes.  They were a great deal and then we headed home to sleep snug in our beds. 

Friday morning we slept in and then did a little more shopping, but nothing too extreme.  We got a few things at Bed Bath & Beyond, and Hobby Lobby.  We also went to Petco to get CC some new toys.  Their cat furniture was on sale so we got her a little jungle gym.  She LOVES it.  



They also gave us some antlers for free, but she doesn't love those very much...


After shopping, we went to my parents to eat leftovers and borrow their truck to go pick out our tree.  My parents came with us and we found the perfect one!  We took it home and got it in water and then went and dropped to truck back off. We visited with them for a while before coming home to decorate our house.  I love decorating for Christmas so we go a little extreme.  This year our theme is "silver and gold" so everything on our tree is either silver or gold.  My Mom even came over and showed me how to make the bows on the top.  Eric and I have a tradition to buy a Christmas tree ornament everywhere we go on vacation together so it's always fun to reminisce while decorating the tree. 

The tree skirt at the bottom of the tree belonged to my grandma who died earlier this year.  It's very special to have something of hers decorate our house this year for Christmas.  I've always felt that a part of my obsession with Christmas came from her because she loved Christmas as well.  Every year she had a huge Christmas Eve party that was so much fun. Driving home from Ephraim on Christmas Eve still is one of my favorite things.  We always listen to "The Night Before Christmas" by Amy Grant while driving through the pitch-black canyon.  I love everything about it.  


We also put up our stockings, a poinsettia (fake so CC can't hurt herself), and my olive wood nativity. Jerusalem is known for its olive wood, especially nativities so I decided to buy one when I was there.  I bought one pretty early on in the semester and shipped it home around October or November.  Later in the semester, I was shopping with some friends and I came upon a different nativity that I fell in love with.  I had to bring it home, so I gave my first nativity to my parents and shipped this one home as well.  It's one of my favorite things I brought home from Jerusalem. 





I also started wrapping the presents that we had already bought.  My Mom is an amazing present wrapper, her presents always look so clean with big, beautiful bows.  After lots of years of practice, I'm finally getting to be nearly as good as her.  I've had a lot of fun wrapping presents this year.  My mom helped me cut out the sparkly tags on her silhouette machine, so everything matches our theme. I love the way everything turned out. 


Saturday was another busy day!  My grandparents had a family party with the whole extended Alder family.  We had a great time visiting with family that we don't see very often.  I woke up early to make a salad for the event and it turned out pretty good.  We played a white elephant game and it was David's first time.  

After the party, Eric and I did more shopping and ran a few errands.  It was a busy afternoon, but then we went downtown with some of our friends from the accounting program.  It was awesome.  Downtown was insanely busy, but the lights were awesome and the company was even better.  Eric's friend Kyle and his wife brought their two little boys and they were adorable.  We walked around for a while and then got some hot chocolate before calling it a night. 




Sunday we went to church and then went over to my parent's house to help decorate their tree. Jake helped David decorate his tree last year in Scotland, so it was really fun to have David help decorate our tree in South Jordan this year!  There are a lot of nostalgic ornaments on my parent's tree and it was a lot of fun to decorate.  Sticking with tradition, my mom made wassail to drink after decorating the tree.  I love the smell of wassail and it's delicious of course.  


Kristin also had an impromptu FHE using some Christmas decorations and it was really nice to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas.  I know I'm guilty of getting wrapped up in the decor and presents, but Christmas is all about the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  4 years ago this Tuesday, I spent the day in Bethlehem at the birthplace of Jesus.  I love to think that Jesus came to earth as a baby and ultimately grew up to be the man that would atone for our sins and allow us to have Eternal Life.  There are symbols of Christ all around us at Christmas and I'm going to try to do better to identify the symbols and think about Christ during this holiday season. 

Overall, we had a great kick-off to the holiday season and I'm excited to see what the rest of the month has to bring!

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