Thanksgiving in Photos

We had a really great Thanksgiving weekend! It was really nice to travel, especially since we got a lot of snow! Luckily those who were traveling to Minneapolis made it safely. We got over 12" of snow from Wednesday through Saturday! I figure I will (mostly) let the pictures do the talking!

Thursday

We went to my brother's house on Thursday. He lives about 30 minutes away so we didn't have to drive very far. Paul got tons of attention from his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins! He handled the attention really well!

Looking snazzy for Thanksgiving

Reading with cousin Anna

Playing with cousin Matthew

Paul and his cousins: Andrew is 14 (top), Kolin is 12 (middle left), Matthew is 11 (middle right) and Anna is 8

Playing with aunt Julie

 Friday

Paul slept until 6:45 on Friday morning which is pretty good for him. He is quite the early riser. It's rare for him to sleep past 7.

Snuggling with mama

On Friday morning, my mom came over to help with meal prep for dinner. We made 3 soups - chicken wild rice, chicken noodle, and vegetable beef. It was fun to hang out in the kitchen with her! In the afternoon, we went to a local nursery/garden center to tour their "idea house." The garden center owns a small house next door and they decorate it for each season. I had never been but I will definitely try to go for each season as it's really cool to see all the decor. I did not take any pictures, though, so you'll have to take my word for how impressive it was!

My SILs Julie and Emily and my mom

It was really fun to show my family our new home! We were a little light on furniture but we made it work. Paul was extra clingy that night so it made meal prep a little bit difficult but it all worked out. I forgot to take pictures of the food but the chicken noodle soup was definitely the most popular!! My mom made the noodles from scratch but after watching her do it, I think I could make them on my own next time. I'll definitely make this again this winter as it was so delicious. As a celiac, I never get to eat chicken noodle soup so it was such a treat!

Saturday

My parents spent the night with us on Friday night. We had a list of things for my dad to do around the house. It's nice to have an electrician for a dad! He installed a light on our front porch, changed out an outlet and changed out some of the dimmer switches so they would be compatible with LED lights.

Phil and I snuck away to do some furniture shopping after breakfast and my mom watched Paul. We ended up buying a reclining chair for our bedroom. We have a very large master bedroom with a fireplace (see photo below from the listing). It's the perfect spot for a little reading nook so I wanted to buy an extra comfy chair. I do 90% of my reading in bed and while that is cozy, I would prefer to sit in a chair and read. I think this area of our bedroom is going to get lots of use!

My parents soaked up a bit more time with Paul when we got back from shopping. Then my mom helped me decorate some planters for our front porch and our 2 window boxes. I didn't take pictures of them but they turned out beautifully! After all that work, they hit the road!

After they left, Phil headed to his mom's to help out with a few things and to bring Oscar back! She stayed with Grandma Joan for 5 weeks! We really missed her but it was the right decision to remove her from the chaos of moving/listing our house! While Phil was at his mom's, I put our Christmas tree up. We didn't put it up last year since Paul was crawling and getting into everything. I really missed it so am glad we have it up this year. When Paul saw it all lit up and decorated he said, "wow!" in the cutest little voice. He says wow when he comes down every morning and when we get home from school. I put ornaments that aren't breakable on the lower branches. He has taken some of them off and played with them but overall he leaves the tree alone. Oscar likes to hide under it to get away from the crazy toddler!

Sunday

On Sunday, Phil got going on putting our kitchen stools together (we also assembled 2 other end tables over the weekend). It was quickly apparent that toddlers and furniture assembly don't go together (we put the other items together when he was napping or in bed).

"helping" daddy

 I figured we should take advantage of the fresh snow and go sledding for the first time. It took quite awhile to get Paul all bundled up. His winter gear is way too big for him, even though the coat is 12m size. I figure he will grow into it with time!

It was a beautiful morning. Our new neighborhood is great for sledding as we live close to a creek. So you can walk along the creek and cross over bridges, etc. Paul loved it and I got a good workout, especially when I had to go up a steep hill at the end! It was a really fun morning and I kept looking around and thinking how beautiful it was with all the snow covered trees!

So much for our wish for the snow to hold off until we closed on the sale of our house. Poor Phil has moved so much snow between our 2 corner houses! Fingers crossed we don't get more in the next 2 weeks!

How was your Thanksgiving weekend?