Thanksgiving 2013

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! We stayed in Minnesota again this year but this time, my parents flew up to spend the weekend with us. It was such a fantastic weekend! They arrived early afternoon on Wednesday and we hit the ground running shortly after they walked in the door. Since my dad loves lasagna, and our kitchen was "closed" until Thanksgiving Day, we braved the MOA and went to dinner. The mall was surprisingly calm and we all had our fill at Tucci Benuch. (We were carb loading for Thanksgiving....) Duane and I prepped a few things later in the evening but we knew we needed to get to bed before our 6am wake up call/Liv.

Liv woke up promptly at 6am and walked right into the guest bedroom and flipped on the light and said, "Wake up Grandma and Papa! It's morning." While my mom and I looked through the enormous Minneapolis Star Tribune (Black Friday ads!!), Duane prepped the turkey and dressing. We had Thanksgiving lunch ready around noon and that's just about the time Jaron & Crystal arrived. The menu consisted of smoked turkey, homemade dressing, roasted potatoes, asparagus, salad and bread. Crystal made a homemade Black Forest cake and I made pumpkin cake, too. Once Liv was down for her nap, we played Phase 10. It was a wonderful 1st Thanksgiving in our new home!

Black Friday was upon us! My mom and I were out the door at 6:45am and then Duane took Olivia into school for the day. I know, I know, we felt terrible about making her go to school but she had quite the surprise waiting for her later that day. My dad and Duane needed to focus on their big task for the day - and so did my mom and I! The mall was really quiet that early in the morning and it was perfect. We had an early lunch and were leaving the mall parking lot around 12:30pm. We hit a couple more stores on the way home but were back by 2:30-3pm. Duane picked up Liv from school as soon as she had woken up and then it was surprise time..... A couple weeks ago, we found a Rainbow playset on Craigslist and Duane and my dad spent the morning setting it up in the backyard. Liv was super excited!

After Olivia had her fix in the cold, Duane and I headed out for a rare date night! Thanks to my parents, for watching Olivia and putting up with her shenanigans! Duane and I had dinner at Broder's and ran a couple errands.

Saturday morning my mom and I ran to Target while the guys and Liv went for a 'hike' at Lebanon Regional Park. We putzed around the house the rest of the afternoon and then went downtown dinner and the Holidazzle Parade. We had dinner at FireLake and then found a fairly decent spot to watch the parade.

My parents took off early this morning and when I returned from the airport, Duane had most of the Christmas decorations out and ready to start decorating! By lunch, the inside was finished; once Liv was down for her nap, we started the outside. We have plans for more decorating outside but we're starting with what we have from the old house for now. I think everything turned out well and we're in the full Christmas spirit now!

Thank you again, Mom and Dad, for all of your help this past weekend and for watching Liv on Friday. We had a great time and are really looking forward to Christmas. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends!