Thanksgiving

Wow - what a weekend.  We started our Thanksgiving trip up to Appleton on Wednesday mid-day.  After dropping the kids off at my parents and picking up Sam, we headed up to Greenbay.  

We met Kevin and Emily (and their newest little Lucy) at the Greenbay Gamblers Hockey Game. Emily's brother, Jefferson, is on the team.  I've never been to a Hockey game at that level and the degree of fighting made my stomach sick but it was great to see them as usual.  I always walk away from my time with them wishing that we had more of it!

Thursday morning we woke up and prepared for our first annual Turkey Trot!  Our original plan to run the 5 mile quickly changed after a few training runs earlier in the month.  Sam, Em, Steve and I chose to run the 2 mile but Peter and Dick stuck with the 5.  My dad power-walked the 2 mile and actually wasn't that far behind us.  We ran between 8.30 and 9 min miles which was awesome considering none of us were bragging about how "in shape" we were!  It was declared that this was the first of a new tradition that we hope to keep up every year.  Steve pushed the stroller so it was a family affair.  

The rest of the day was spent making candy turkeys, watching Wall-E (an awesome movie if you haven't yet seen it), napping or attempting to, and visiting.  My mom and Naomi were busy in the kitchen and Sam, Peter, and Chris were taking lessons on how to cook the turkey on the grill.  They hope to take over the job next year on their own...scary! 

Dinner was wonderful. I absolutely LOVE our Thanksgiving.  The Bruesehoffs are such a part of our family and I can't imagine the holiday without them.  It's been the same every year for as long as I can remember and I hope it never changes.  Unfortunately Nathan and Beth weren't able to join us but we did talk to Nate during dinner.  We eat, laugh, and of course, go around the table sharing what we are thankful for.  

After dinner we ate pie, visited some more, went for a walk to the park and it was off to bed.  

The next morning we got ourselves cleaned up and Sam and I had a Sudoku standoff!  With Peter's help we kicked his butt!!  hehe  Then we got ready for our annual scavenger hunt.  This year was a little different.  This year we had no time limit but were given a list of objects to find and bring back. It was then our job to make something with it all.  Some of the objects were: hand warmers, green ribbon, cheerios,  soap opera digest, silver glitter and an object of our choosing.  Sam, Peter, Olivia and I were on a team.  We started at Fleet Farm and then went to Woodmans, Toms Drive-In and Starbucks.  Our final creation was a "Soap Opera Party Box."  It was really fun.  Braden's team of elders (Dick, Naomi, Patti and Phil) made a farm which actually turned out really cool.  Emily, Chris and Steve made a pop culture creation.  You can see all of them in the slideshow.  It's become a silly tradition but is fun to have something to look forward to on that Friday.

Steve, the kids and I packed up and headed home about 7 that night.  We were exhausted and really looking forward to sleeping in our own beds.  The next morning we went to Stein and got our Christmas tree.  Sam and Em stopped by later that day and our light pro, Emily, helped to put our Christmas tree lights on.  They look beautiful.  Thanks Em!

The rest of the weekend was very low key - just what we needed.  We did a lot of lying around, snuggling and decorating.  I love this time of year and am already looking forward to that Turkey Trot, the yummy turkey made by Sam, Peter and Chris, and some type of scavenger hunt next year.  I love you all.