Awwww….Thanksgiving break was sooooo nice!
The Sunday before Thanksgiving, I went grocery shopping for Thanksgiving dinner with the girls. They did well and the store wasn't packed. Win! Win!
She's holding onto a doll I played with when I wasn't much older than her.
I took the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off and I’m so happy I did. I was able to sleep in, take the girls to a movie, come home take a nap and then spend the evening prepping the dishes I was in charge of for Thanksgiving.
Here are some pictures of the girls at the movies!
Charlotte was in a twirling mood that day.
They were so excited to see the movie!
Awwww....sisters!
We saw Big Hero 6! It was a great movie!
There goes Charlotte twirling again.
We spent the holiday at my sister’s house.
Coloring while watching The Christmas Parade.
She of course outdid herself with all the decorations and details. Everything felt so festive! She cooked the turkey, appetizer, and desserts and I was in charge of the sides.
Everything turned out delicious! We make a good team. Every year when we sit down to dinner we tell our mom how we can’t believe she used to cook everything by herself for many, many years. It’s a lot of work for one person! But Dusty and I did all our prepping the day before so we actually got to relax and spend time with family the day of while everything cooked. I was able to run to the store with my dad which allowed for some good conversation between he and I. I was able to go outside with the girls on multiple occasions.
Charlotte rearranged some of their rocks and then climbed on them.
Never get tired of these views.
These are all things that you miss out on when you’re stuck in the kitchen all day! Chase even showed Morgan how to throw and catch a football.
Thanksgiving is always a perfect time to get together with family which is so important to me.
Charlotte loving on her Nana and Papa!
The day after Thanksgiving Daniel had to work so the girls and I headed up to the Sierra National Forrest (way past Dusty’s house further up in the mountains near Yosemite). They have a steam train that still runs up there and offers rides to tourists. Dusty and I have been talking about taking our parents and kiddos to ride the train and we finally did it. The weather was perfect. It was in the high 60’s with lots of sunshine.
After the train, we ate outside at a restaurant in Coarsegold. Again, the ambiance was unbelievably gorgeous. We were surrounded by colorful trees with leaves all around. Christmas music was playing in the background and the weather was beautiful.
We had fun eating and visiting with family and then it was back to our house for the girls and I.
The next day (Saturday) I rushed around the house baking Charlotte’s birthday cake, prepping dinner and cleaning. I also had to run out for last minute birthday items I never got around to getting. My sister, nephew, mom and dad joined us for dinner that night to celebrate not only Charlotte’s birthday but my dad’s who is December 1st, my nephew’s who is December 3rd and my mom too because we didn’t get to celebrate her birthday in October!
I made a butterfly cake for Charlotte. We adorned ourselves with party hats and sang to her before opening gifts. She was darling!
She has been telling me for months how she’s excited about her birthday party. It was always when the car was quiet that she’d pipe up with her little voice and quietly say, “Mommy, I’m excited about my birfday parteeee!” One day I asked her what she was going to have at her birthday party and she told me a cake, friends, balloons and party hats so that’s what I made sure we had!
I loved that my family totally participated and everyone wore the party hat. Matter of fact we probably had a bit too much fun with those things. I’d show you pictures of my dad being silly with them but he’d kill me so in my best interest I’ll skip posting those.
Finally Sunday we celebrated Charlotte’s birthday with a special family day. The whole Thanksgiving break was glorious! I couldn’t have asked for anything more.
