Thanksgiving 2009 and family Christmas pictures...oh my!

Very good holiday, moved by WAY too quickly. All four Hortons joined us this year for Thanksgiving. That in itself brought much to be thankful for. Mom is here too, which is great. There were so many years that we didn't spend the holiday together. I wish I could get them back. Since we can't I can only hope for many more family filled holidays.

Chip pulled the turkey out on Monday to thaw in garage. It certainly has been chilly enough. The hum of the holiday is starting to pick up which is nice.

Hortons arrived late Tuesday. We stayed up too late right away. Before they came in we actually hung up a bunch of pictures on the wall. It actually feels like we live here after almost a year and a half. Wednesday was fairly uneventful at work. Slow day, but managed to hang in. I'm still fighting tired and morning sickness. I'm never sure whether to eat or just wait it out. It is SO not fun. I've tried both. It's bad to eat bad stuff, it's worse not to eat at all...right?

Thursday morning the girls came in to join us for the holiday. It had been about a month since I had seen them last. It's always so wonderful to have them come out of the airport. Gillian will be staying until Christmas Eve. Kaitlyn went back today, but will be back the week before Christmas.

Chris and Keith had asked if we wanted to get together for a softball game. So all of us jumped in the car and headed to Joyce's. The boys were overwhelmed, but it was good. They loved Joyce's new dog and kennel. Forget the toys, bring on a dog kennel! So we all hopped in the car and headed to a middle school and had a wonderful afternoon. Mom and Joyce had the dogs and watched. Well Joyce gave it one try and knocked it out! Danny and I watched the boys and the rest of us played softball. It was really, really a great afternoon. The boys really enjoyed themselves just running around. No nap and completely out of whack for them, but they seem to just go with the flow. A little crabby in the car and all three fell asleep.

We came home and finished up dinner. This year seemed effortless compared to other years. Cooked the turkey for the first time in my new roaster. Turkey (as warned in the instructions) did not turn brown. Looked a little odd, but it was the most tender turkey I've ever eaten. We all agree that the roaster wins, hands down. The additional bonus is that the oven is free to cook other stuff. Mom made an amazing apple pie. She did the lattice top and everything. Beautiful and yummy! We had a delightful meal. Great family with really good conversation. Moments that are special and memorable. I love those kinds of days. I was dragging with morning sickness and just plain tired. Made it through though.

On Friday I had to work...casinos have the worst benefit plan on the planet. Nothing going on and lucky for me my boss is really cool and I came in late and out of the office early. I was thankful to get home early and be at home with the rest of the crew. We watched Four Christmases, which was pretty cute.

Mom had a great idea to head to a craft fair at the convention center so me, mom, Bunny, Gillian, Kaitlyn and Danny loaded up in the minivan and headed to town. The craft fair was pretty weak but had great deals. Mom and I talked to the vendors quite a bit. Great to meet the locals and just talk about all kinds of stuff. I bought a couple of things. Bunny found quite a bit.

Sunday came much too quickly. It was quite a morning. Hortons were getting ready to depart and we were getting the boys and the rest of us ready for a family pic. Now call me crazy, but I really wanted to get a professional family picture with the whole family. That includes 3, yes 3, two year olds. Oh my god, I had no idea just how crazy it would be. Ben wanted nothing to do with being held in any way shape or form. He was just not having it. No one wanted to be confined. Finally they starting taking pictures. The best one we could get of all of us had a big yellow duck in the picture and Ben was crying. It was such a calamity of errors that I finally pretty much gave up. They took well over 100 photos. Girls together, boys playing, Chip and I, all of us...it was a true experience. A 20 minute appointment took and well over an hour. Finally I had to leave because we had to get the boys down for a nap. I did go back right away. Of course like the session trying to get pictures, buying them was no picnic either. They advertise a discount but of course there were so many limitations that it was nearly impossible to get. Eventually all came around and we left after we lightened our cash load by $200. Yep, $200. They will only be two once and it was so good to get the girls and us in various pictures. Well worth it. Time was pushed to the limit on Sunday. I buzzed home and grabbed Kaitlyn and took her to the airport to go back to Vegas. Phew! Every day is like this though. Moving from one thing to another. Some days are better than others.