Thanksgiving weekend wrap up

Thanksgiving was wonderful this year! I started the weekend off with a beautiful gift from my bosses, this lovely bouquet of roses! They are amazing, the family that is, and I am thankful to work for them. Dave has been doing a lo of homework to catch up on his crazy work load, but he did sneak away from the books all day on Thanksgiving! What a great present to ME (I am sure he enjoyed it too).
We had great friends over for Thanksgiving this year. We had way too much good fun, great conversations and lots of laughter (especially when we focused on the kids). I am so grateful for the wonderful friends we have made here in A2. We are lucky to be surrounded by talented and amazing people. Thanks Barbers, Abernethys, and Hortons for a fun holiday!! My only regret is not getting a picture of the whole group at the table (A Kinnersley tradition) and talking about what we are thankful for. Oh well. Gearing up our bellies for one heck of a feast. We had every counter covered with something!

Dave Carvin' Mr. Turk (as my mom calls it)

Jess and Drew made a yummy appetizer, Anna loved to dip the crackers, even if the dip wasn't her favorite, we had a hard time keeping her away.

Here are my homemade place cards with leaves I picked around A2 and dried. It was a fun craft to make and helped to dress the table.

...Ready to eat.... Katie and Kevin made this AMAZING layered Jello Salad. It not only looked beautiful, but tasted wonderful!
You know you had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner when you have these choices for dessert (Pumpkin pie, Apple Pie, and Chocolate Chip Cheesecake) and you are too stuffed to eat it. But that makes it even better because then have this much left over to eat all weekend!

Once everyone left we tried to take a picture, but we never got one without laughing at the outcome, here is the best we could get. I love this man and am thankful to spend each day being his wife.

THE REST OF THE WEEKEND...

After filling the bellies and cleaning up the house I was ready to get started on Christmas!! I love getting all the decor out the day after Thanksgiving. I do not start listening to Christmas music until then ( which by the way I heard Christmas music on the radio a couple days after Halloween, come on people, Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday, lets not forget it!).

Here is the decor... In trying to keep Christ as a focus of Christmas this year I decided to first decorate with my Nativity. Anna helped me and enjoyed putting all the characters and animals on. She has been asking all weekend for me to hold her and show her Jesus ("Hold You Mama....Baby Jesus sleeping"). I thought that if I put the Nativity (or Creche as many people in A2 call it) as the main focus in the room that I might be better at remembering the true meaning.

I gave Anna her own tree and things to decorate it. It took her a minute to figure out how to hang ornaments, but once she did this was her creation! It was so cute.

(Yes, Sadie and Oly girls, this is the SAME tree from our Christmas party long ago. I always loved it and it has been fun to decorate in different ways throughout the year. Now my children can have their own little tree!)

Trying to get a photo of Anna tonight with her tree was rather daunting. She wouldn't look at me and when she did she was silly. I have NO IDEA what she was doing in this picture but I took it anyway.

Last year we decided not to get a tree because we wouldn't be here throughout most of December, this year I felt it was a must! We found a cute little tree that is perfect for this year. A change from our last tree 2 years ago (Goliath was his nickname).

P.S. One of the greatest things about Thanksgiving Turkey is TURKEY DUMPLING SOUP!!! I love it, the smell in my home today as I made it was so nostalgic. I have posted the recipe on a recipe blog. Here is the link...http://hllmwrecipes.blogspot.com/