A Family Kind of Thanksgiving

November comes and November goes….Sometimes it feels as though the days are just passing us by. If I blink for too long, I just might miss out on something. The holiday season is upon us once again. Can you believe that Christmas is only 26 days away? Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday. I love everything about it! Jason and I started our own family tradition after we had kids. Every year on the Friday after Thanksgiving, we usually spend the whole day getting our house ready for Santa (yes we have to listen to Willie's Pretty Paper first). This year was a little different. This year we had the pleasure of hosting our first Thanksgiving in our first home. I have to admit, it was pretty exciting. I planned the menu and did the shopping. I cleaned and got our home ready to greet 5 extra adults and 3 additional kids.

Jason’s mom, boyfriend, and their foreign exchange student from Germany (aka Nana, Papa, and Matt) drove 26 hours from Las Vegas, Nevada to spend Thanksgiving week with our family of 5. They arrived on Sunday evening tired and sore, but in very good spirits. The kids were so excited to see them. I don’t remember how it all went, but I do know that there was a lot of jumping, a lot of hugging, and a lot of giggling.

We spent some time taking in the Christmas sights. Every year Louisiana and Texas join together to create the Holiday Trail of Lights. Our first stop was Natchitoches (I know you all remember how to pronounce the name of this city). We drove around the Cane River, browsed the shops downtown, and watched as they lit the lights along the river bed. Our second stop was Marshall, Texas where we got to experience Marshall’s Wonderland of Lights at the historic Harrison County Courthouse.

 

Thanksgiving Day brought in a few more guests. Our brother-in-law David and our three nephews joined us all the way from Iowa. This was quite a moment for all of us. Nana hadn’t met the younger grandsons and the cousins hadn’t seen each other in over two years. We spent some time catching up and watching the kids play. You would think that I would have been busy cooking in the kitchen but actually it wasn’t all that bad. Papa saved the day by fixing my sink, Jason fried his first turkey, Nana baked the ham, and I prepared all of the sides (mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, and sweet potato casserole). I wish I could take credit for the delicious pies but I cheated and bought all four. A couple of trips to the store to pick-up some missing items and a plunger.....and our Thanksgiving dinner was a huge success :-) 

On Friday, I dragged myself out of bed at 4 o’clock in the morning. I swore I would never ever ever be a black Friday shopper after my first experience but, with no presents in sight, the deals were too attractive to pass up. I have to say that I managed to tackle three stores, get every single item I was after, made it to Starbucks for a coffee, and back home before anyone even woke up. Under three hours, I think it’s a world record of some sort :-)

Needless to say after a few busy days, a late turkey night that included a bottle of crown and a couple bottles of wine, and six very active kids we all decided to take a nap on Friday afternoon.

Well rested and ready to venture into the chilly weather, we decided to take the kids to visit Santa on his train as it made a special stop into downtown Shreveport.

Friday evening, Jason’s sister Andi joined us from Texas. Unfortunately, she missed out on some of the festivities because of her work schedule but, we spent the rest of the weekend making up for it.

 

We woke up Saturday morning with a total of 13 people in our house! We are still trying to figure out how we made it work. I guess when it comes to family you can never not have enough room.

I can't begin to express how much it meant to have our family in our home for our very first Thanksgiving in Louisiana. Thank you for helping us create some amazing memories!!