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Thanksgiving Weekend Wrap-Up

by Megan

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend! We spent it with my husband’s family, in Payson, Arizona, and many shenanigans were afoot.

We left Wednesday morning, running several errands along the way including a doctor appointment for Harrison, and we got there mid-afternoon. Carter was reunited with his cousin bestie, Jessa, who was born 3 weeks and 20 minutes after him.

carter and jessa

Vanessa tagged along with them but spent just as much time playing on her own. With a playroom full of new (to her) toys, she was in toddler heaven. Harry spent many happy hours being held by various relatives, including his Gramma Ila, who will soon be welcoming grandchild #17!

On Thursday morning I watched most of the parade while browsing the sale papers. Then, in the early afternoon, we packed up all of our food for the feast and brought it to my sister-in-law’s mother’s house, where she has this amazing party barn!

thanksgiving barn
carter with pies

I don’t know if I’ve had another Thanksgiving with as much ambiance as this barn provided!

adult table
kids table
feast

There were 27 of us in all: my mother-in-law, her 5 children with their 5 spouses, and 16 grandchildren, the littlest being 2.5-month-old twinners!

baby row

That evening, I decided to head over to Walmart to brave the 6pm crowds, since several of the gifts already on my Christmas list were on sale. I managed to get everything I needed and back out without too much chaos!

On Friday I went back to the barn with my sisters-in-law, and we helped to get it decorated for Christmas. Then the adults stayed up late playing fun charade-style games. Lots of laughs were had!

Saturday morning I had some quiet time while the older kids played, and I took the opportunity to go online, scour the deals, and take care of the majority of my Christmas shopping!

That afternoon, my sister-in-law and my niece and I went to see The Book Thief. If you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend it. They both had read the book first, so while they enjoyed the movie, they both said the book was much better and many great parts were left out. Having not read the book, I was able to just enjoy the movie. The acting, writing, and content were all superb, and it’s been in the back of my mind ever since. I would see the movie again, but I think I need to get the book, too!

Saturday night was…difficult! Both Carter and Vanessa had started to get sick, so after just about an hour of sleep, I woke up when Carter started coughing and yelling in his sleep. He was feverish, so I cuddled with him to try to help him sleep. After probably an hour of dozing next to him, I heard Harrison wake up, so I nursed him and put him back to bed. I had just barely crawled back into my bed when I heard Vanessa cough and then throw up in her bed. So I had to get up and clean her up, as well as her bedding, and her clothing, and her hair… I got her clean clothes, put her back into bed, and then it happened again! In the middle of cleaning her up for the second time, Carter started yelling in his sleep again. So Daniel brought him into our bed, to help keep him quiet and sleeping, while I took care of Vanessa. I gave her a bath (this was around 2 am), put a third outfit on her, and wrapped her in a towel. We cuddled on the couch and watched The Wonder Pets for an hour (remote in one hand, puke bowl in the other). She got sick several more times before falling asleep on the couch. I knew my brother and sister-in-law would be up soon to feed their babies, so I wanted to clear the couch for them. Luckily, one family had left a day early, so there was an empty room. I put Vanessa to sleep in there (on top of a towel!) and fell asleep next to her, around 4 am. Thank goodness she didn’t get sick again after that, and I was able to sleep until almost 9 am! Wow, long night!

harry

Sunday morning we cleaned up and packed up and headed home. Tomorrow evening we plan on having a family Christmas decorating night! SO the kind of thing I get excited about. I’m thinking Christmas music, an easy project for the kids (paper link advent calendar), and maybe some hot apple cider. Christmas is going to seem to come so fast since Thanksgiving was so late this year.

Well, I hope everyone else had a fun holiday, whatever it is you may have done! Here’s to December and wrapping up 2013!

me and dan
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