After spending nearly a month at home due to covid and quarantine schedules, it felt so good to be with our family for Thanksgiving. We arrived on Wednesday evening, just in time to help Grandma make some homemade pumpkin pies for the next day's Thanksgiving feast.
The next day Luke, Annalyse, and Everett joined us for some cousin playtime and a delicious lunchtime meal of all the favorite Thanksgiving treats. Since our family is not all that crazy about turkey, Mom and Dad made a beef tenderloin that they got from Uncle Todd who is a chef. It was probably the best beef I've ever eaten - so unbelievably tender and flavorful! Simon especially loved dessert time and stole the whipped cream off of everyone else's pie after he gobbled up his own.
The next day was Black Friday and we decided to have the kids make candy houses. We went to the dollar store and got lots of different sizes and shapes of candy to use for their building. And because it's such a cool place, we decided to run to the Chippewa Candy Shoppe for a few other treats. It was such an amazing shop, full of every kind of sweet treat you could imagine. The kids each got to pick a few special treats to bring home and they were ecstatic. When we got back to Grandma and Grandpa's, the kids got work on their houses. They used poptarts instead of gingerbread, and it worked really well. They had a blast decorating their creations and sampling along the way.
The next day Annalyse, Lucas, and Everett joined us to head to Grandpa Arnie's Christmas Tree Farm to pick out their Christmas trees. The Whitetail Christmas Tree farm was started by my grandpa years ago and I grew up helping out there each December. They would have their little camper there all toasty warm, and I would help Grandma Edie collect the money and pass out candy canes to all the kids who came to visit. My parents worked outside, showing people around and helping people shake and bale their trees. For the last several years, no new trees were planted or trimmed. The trees that are left are big and wild, but are special just the same. We found their trees, loaded them on the trailer, and fired up the campstove for some hot chocolate. It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. When we got back to Eau Claire, Olivia claimed one of the scrub trees meant for a porch pot as Cindy's (her doll's) tree and insisted that it get decorated for Christmas. Grandma and Grandpa humored her, thinking it would be a temporary project, but it soon became clear that the little scrub tree would be standing in their house for the duration of the Christmas season. They decorated it with some of Grandma's older ornaments and lots of beads and garlands. They topped it with construction paper sun, moon, and stars held on by tape. They were so excited and found it absolutely beautiful.
Later that evening, Eric and I were able to slip away with Luke and Annalyse for a dinner out at Stella Blues. I don't think the four of us have been able to have a dinner out together since they lived in California, so it was really fun to have the opportunity to do something together.
It was a really special time with family, especially after missing last year's Thanksgiving and our recent isolation. We are so thankful for our many blessings and our loving family definitely tops the list!
No comments:
Post a Comment