My Thanksgiving weekend

It is Sunday morning and I am sitting in the Lazy boy chair with my feet up typing on the keys of my laptop. Snow is falling just outside my window, Anne is putting lights on the Christmas tree and the kids for some unknown reason are playing quietly in another room. I will find out the reason later for quite play, I hope the clean-up will not take too long.

This weekend was great for me, when I was a child we would have very large groups at our home for Thanksgiving and I really enjoyed all the activities that we did. I was very excited for this year because Anne and I were able to host the Dinner and day at our home. In the end we had a blast and I am glad that we had such a fun time. But before I tell about the great Turkey day I need to start at the beginning, so here is my Thanksgiving weekend story.

We spent Wednesday night trying on Josh and Jackson's new skis, even Lexi felt that she would give it a try. They had fun walking around the living room and said the skis would work great and they would be ready to go on Friday.

Thanksgiving morning started for me with a run to the race site where I would meet Anne and the kids. Anne would take Jackson and go and register and the rest of us would get ready for the race to start. This was Jackson's first 5K and the first time that Anne would run the race and not hang with the kids (it was my turn). I bundled up Lexi and put her in the Burley with Josh and we headed for the start. Jackson was excited to race and so we told Mom good luck and headed to the back of the race start where most strollers were and Anne went to the Front. Jackson and Josh started running and did really well the whole race, Lexi even spent some time running with the boys. We ended up crossing the finish line with Both Josh and Jackson running in a full sprint and came in at 49:42. Anne had a great race and PR at a 23:47. She said that she gave it her all, she did not get to warm up so the first mile hurt pretty bad but she still was able to run negitive splits.

Broom Hockey came next at the church with the kids and after an hour of running we cleaned up and headed home to get ready for dinner. Three tables held the 22 people that came for dinner at our home. We had an adults table, teen table and little kids. The dinner was beyond great, the food seemed to taste the best it ever has. We had two 15lb Turkeys one cooked in the oven and one on the grill that was smoked with hickory chips. We had all the traditional items and was able to fill our plates full with just a small samples of each item.

After dinner was spent playing Wii, Lego's, watching football and just visiting. We spent some time saying what we were thankful for and typed an email to my parents who are serving a mission in Lebanon. The day seemed to fly by and our home held together very well. Anne is the best host and we had simply a wonderful time.

Friday the boys and I went skiing with all the cousins to Keystone. The snow is a little week for this time of year but with a season pass given to them from Papa and Nana for Christmas who cares. This year Jackson can go without me and after a few runs found some cousins to go with and was gone. Josh is learning this year and spent the entire day getting use to his new skis between my legs holding onto my poles. Being able to ski with a large family group is great, the kids break up not by age or sex but by ability and so it is fun to see the groups take off with a 9 year old and a 15 year old holding their own.

For us the fun kept rolling into Saturday, when Anne and I started the day with a PC Group run of 10 miles bright and early. It had snowed the night before so the trail that we ran on was covered with snow as well as the trees and everything else. We had a blast running together, Anne is such a great runner and has always been. Now that I enjoy running it is fun to go together. Hayley watched the kids, we appreciate that she would get up so early to come and babysit. We rushed home to get ready for our annual tree cutting adventure and let me tell you with 4 cars full of people it was a real adventure. The question posed for the day is, why take 4 hours to do something when you can stretch it out to 8? We were going to leave at 10:30am from Johns home. We arrived at 10:40am, I forgot the permit and headed back home. We did get off just after 11:15 and then proceeded to stop 3 time or was it 25 times for gas, food and getting lost on this simple hour and a half drive to Buffalo Creek. We arrived all together, the kids did not care because they were able to ride in different cars with cousins and had fun. We started a fire, found a sledding hill and played for 3 hours. Somewhere in that time we were able to go and cut down a Christmas tree. We arrived home in the dark and I felt that the day was WONDERFUL. Our family is crazy different but the kids (cousins) do not care about different personalities and so the theme of the day was "let it roll".

The kids and Mom have now put all the lights on the tree, the snow is still falling down only harder now. I am ready to get a glass of hot chocolate and continue enjoying this wonderful Sunday. I am taking a rest day from my workouts and will more than likely eat more than I should. I will find some reason to take a nap later, I think I feel a headache coming on fast :). I do want to say that I love my family, this weekend as hard as it was to get ready for and as fast as it went by, I would do it a hundred times over. My kids had a blast, they know that we love them and they certainly know that they have a family that loves them. My brothers and sisters treat my kids so kindly, and when everything is boiled down we simply have a blast. A huge group and we keep wanting to get together, time and time again. I missed my parents this weekend, I know that they are loving what they are able to do and I am proud of them but I still miss them. They leave such a big hole when they go that is only filled back up when they return so I am eager to have next October come when they get home.

It is REALLY snowing hard so I guess I will add snow blowing to my days activities.

Anne, you are the best. I really loved spending so much time with you this weekend and I am glad that you do not get board of me. Tell next time,

I love you Anne,

T