Christina and Paul hosted their first Thanksgiving in their new home. It was a beautiful day-- chilly but blue skies. The views from their home of the valley were amazing. The food and decorations were perfect. We had a great day together and have much to be thankful for! The morning was spent with Brian and I taking turns with some much-loved Thanksgiving excursive. He played football and I went for a run. Time went fast..we worked on our food assignments, got the kids ready and it was time to go!
Things haven't been harmonious within the family this year, and having everyone together without too much conflict was a huge feat. It was a really important time to all be gathered to spend the holiday together and leave some unresolved issues aside for a while. This was a great day to remember the most important things in life are family. The meal was spectacular.
Calvin snitching veggies before the meal started...who can wait?!?! Everything looks and smells so good!
Zoey loved holding her new cousin Beau Homolik
Jackson enjoyed time with cousins...
Brian and I were in charge of pie stuffing, and sweet potatoes. It was a nice to only show up with a few sides. Hosting Thanksgiving is a big deal! Calvin stepped on our pie right before we headed up to the feast and we had no backup plan...so we served around his footprint. I have recently developed an allergy to pecans and so my typical favorite sweet potato casserole with a pecan and brown sugar crumble was not an option! I was so bummed! We made a savory sweet potato casserole with sage butter cream sauce. It ended up being delicious! A great surprise to the menu.
Friday, Brian made apple pie and we feasted on that (sans footprint) with Annie and Ryan, who came to visit and play games for the evening. They are moving from Colorado to Sahuarita Arizona. It was nice to have them in town.
Paul made a ship for the kids to eat their Thanksgiving meal in. It was hit for the kiddos.
The kids were pet sitting for Gram and Gramps while they were out of town for Thanksgiving. This was a great way for them to earn Christmas money. We had been traveling up and back from their house while feeding and playing with the dogs morning and night. The last day, we brought Lucy and Bruno to our house for a night and the kids enjoyed playing with them in our first snowfall of the year!
On Saturday we picked out our Christmas tree, got it decorated and worked on the yard and house lights as well.
Saturday night we took Elmo and Judy to the Utah Symphony Messiah Sing-in. It was in celebration of Judy's Birthday. It was a fantastic performance. The music was beautiful. Brian and I went last year and loved the voices we heard surrounding us of participants singing parts of the chorus in the program. This time, we had the unfortunate luck of sitting in front of a boy who was trying to sing the soprano parts (which he didn't know well), at the top of his lungs, while going through voice changes. It was awful. You can't ever know who you'll be sitting by in a sing-in.
