Giving Thanks

This is the time of the year when I begin to get sappy about things and beginning the Thanksgiving week with Adalyn's preschool program certainly put my sappiness at an all time high.  Yes, it was only 5 songs and a grand total of five minutes long, but  I one proud mama watching my little girl and all of her classmates put on one heck of a Thanksgiving show.  They sang songs about fat turkeys, squirrels with bushy tails, and pumpkins.  But my favorite song was the one at the very end.  During the first four songs the kids had motions to go with their words and mostly watched their teachers and copied what they were doing.  The last song was about being thankful and included no motions.  However, Addy decided that it certainly needed some movement and did what she called her "slow motion dance moves" throughout the entire thing.  Now this wouldn't have been as noticeable in the back row, but Addy was front and center and was dancing for all to see.  At one point her neighbor's turkey hat went flying off her head and we're pretty sure Addy may have had something to do with its flight!  I guess I should have asked more questions that morning when she told Derek that her favorite song of the program was the "Thankful song" when she gets to do her slow dance moves.  I had no idea that it was her own choreography!  Needless to say, Derek and laughed through the entire performance and we are still chuckling about it today!

So proud of our little performer!

Enjoying the cookies after the performance



Addy in her turkey hat from the performance

Addy had the day off school on Wednesday and we spent the morning running errands and getting last minute things that we needed for hosting my family for Thanksgiving.  Mom, Dad, and Ashley came up on Wednesday night.  We were all so happy to see them and were excited to host our First Thanksgiving at our house.  We woke up early on Thursday to put the bird in the oven and prep some of the other dishes we were going to eat.  We ate our Thanksgiving meal around noon and then spent of the rest of the day spending quality time together, napping, and finalizing our Black Friday shopping lists. 

The bird (pre-oven)

The centerpiece that I made..I was so proud:)

Around 9:30 Thursday night Mom, Ashley, and I headed out to a few stores.  I have always enjoyed going on Black Friday.  I guess I kind of think of it as a sport.  I didn't really have any big "must have" items on my list, just small bargains.  Mom was hoping to score a few things for the kids at great deal and Ashley was starting her holiday shopping.  We headed to the typically "less busy" Wal-Mart in town and actually found many of the things we had on our list.  After that we went to Target and after seeing the line that wrapped around the store, we decided not to attempt to make our way in.  We finished up our evening at Toys-R-Us.  We had planned for it to be our first stop, but decided against it when the line to get in at 9:30 went all the way around the store. 

Overall Mom came home the big winner and scored some great deals for the kids.  We had a great time going out and get in about 1:30, which isn't bad considering we heard many people that were in lines around us talk about how they were staying out until 6 a.m. when the other stores opened. 

On Friday Derek and Dad worked outside and hung a lighted wreath above our garage.  Derek and I headed out to a few stores to score a few more deals for the kids.  In the evening the girls went to paint pottery at the art studio in town and the boys went to Farm & Fleet to browse and pick up supplies for Christmas lights.  We all met for dinner and headed home.

Saturday we loaded up in our vehicle to go to dinner and check out the Christmas lights around town.  Anyone who knows my Dad knows that he loves to put up lights for the holidays.  We took him to see several crazily decorated houses so he could be inspired.  Let me tell you, we have quite a few crazy houses!


My family left early on Sunday to head back to Indiana.  We had a fabulous Thanksgiving holiday and are so thankful for so many things.  We had a wonderful year and are so blessed to have so many wonderful family and friends in our lives.

**I apologize for the lack of pictures!  For some reason the camera didn't get picked up as much as I would have liked it to!