Thanksgiving

It has been a week since we returned from MI for Thanksgiving and only now do I have some time to sit and think and blog. :) It's been a busy week of cleaning up the van from the trip, trying to get the kids back into the swing of things with our daily schedule, putting clothes away, and putting away misc piles that have gotten out of control recently. But I am feeling like things are in better order in my house, therefore I can now think. :)

THANKSGIVING!!

It was a great week! Matt and I and the kids started the trip by driving up to stay the night with the Griffin's near Little Rock. The next morning we headed out for MI. It was a long second day of driving but the kids did really well. I'll be honest, I was ready for the worst. I was ready for irritability and fussing and motion sickness. I had toys for the kids and I had back-up toys! I had snacks and drinks (but we didn't want them to drink too much so we wouldn't have to stop alot!) But the drive went way better than I anticipated. There must have been alot of prayers out there for us. :) The kids kept themselves entertained in the morning, then they had lunch, then naps, then they played for a bit again, then dinner, then videos at nighttime, then one last potty stop and they slept the rest of the way. 

While we were up there we stayed with Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Stan. We went to Jim and Deana's place and saw their new house. It is a really cute place! We also saw Julie and Brian and the girls quite a bit since they live only 1/2 a mile down the road. And then we went to Grandma Lola and Grandpa's house one morning as well. That was all before Thanksgiving Day. On Thanksgiving Day Aunt Judy and Jim, Cyndi and Ben, and Grandma Lola and Grandpa came over for dinner. That evening all the girls headed down to aunt Judy's house in IN to search through all the ads and plot their plan of attack for shopping the next morning, Black Friday. Grandma Lola and I didn't go down for the shopping. We are not fans of all the crowds and standing in endless lines. So I helped the others find the gifts they were looking for. At one point, I'm not really sure how this topic came up, but Julie and someone else started talking about killing chickens at the farm for food. Well, at that point, this city-girl headed on out to the kitchen! But I did find some tasty Bailey's and after a few sips was able to join in on the conversation. :) The next morning everyone else headed out while Grandma and I slept in. We joined everyone for breakfast around 9ish and then headed home where my sister and her family were waiting for me! It was great to see them. They stayed the day at Deb and Stan's. We all went out on a hay ride to the pines. Everyone got out and ran around through all the trees until we were freezing. Then we headed back in to warm up and get ready for some of Grandma Lola's fabulous swiss steak for dinner. Yum! The kids had fun together and it was nice to hang out with Patti and Bill and all of Matt's family. We had more people over for dinner on Friday than on Thanksgiving! Jim and his family and Julie and her family also came over. There were a lot of kids! 

On Saturday we were ready to head home. I knew I would miss everyone, but I was tired and needed to get home and get the kids back to their routine. There are some great things about living up in MI that I think I would really enjoy if we were there. But as I prayed about it I knew that we are still supposed to be in TX for the time being. And I have to admit, I think the weather here is much better! :) So, Debbie loaded us up with fresh salsa and strawberry jam to take home. Julie got us some pure honey, peaches and applesauce. And Deana baked and frosted a ton of sugar cookies that we we have thoroughly enjoyed. And the cookies are gone. :) 

Saturday night we stayed the night at the Payne Chatelaine! Amy, I'm surprised that you didn't mention on your blog the exciting game that we played after the kids went to bed! Have any of you ever played 24? If you haven't then you MUST! Fabulous game! Fabulous! ;) Wouldn't you recommend it, Amy? (he he he). Ok, so this game must have some kind of bug in it or something. It started out good, but then there were certain parts that you had to use your remote with the tv that none of us could get past. So, of course, according to the game our missions kept failing. It was actually really funny and we all had alot of fun playing. It was really great to see the Payne's again. We have missed you all down here in TX. And we will stop and see you again next time we drive to MI. This time we will hopefully not have puke-smelling children when we first arrive. :) (Anna and Austin both got motion sick in the van and threw up about 20 min before we got to their house. I think it was the winding back roads that did it to them.)

We left early Sunday morning for TX. On the way we got a call from the Griffins who were also driving home from KY. As it turned out we were both about the same distance away from their house. So, we decided to crash at their place for dinner and to let the kids run around and get their jammies on before we finished our journey. After getting stuck in some traffic, we arrived at their place first and ordered the pizza. It was a really nice break in the trip. On the one hand, it made the trip longer, but it was worth it. We arrived home about 1am or so. 

All in all the trip went really well. We had a good drive there and back. And we all had a good time with friends and family.

I will post pictures on my picasa site.