Thanksgiving 2016

This year's Thanksgiving started off the same way it has the past 3 years with a Turkey Trot 5k, race recap to come. This year rather than staying in Tulsa and running a race there (the race wasn't held this year), we ran the race in a town about 40 minutes from my parents' house and did Thanksgiving at their house this year. This was by far the most enjoyable Thanksgiving we've had in recent years. When we do Thanksgiving in Tulsa we tend to try to do dinner early and have to rush around in order to make it to a special tree lighting event we've gone to each year. Doing it at my parents' house there was no rush to get anywhere and we just relaxed and took our time once we got home from the race. I think Thanksgiving at my parents' house will become our new tradition. Read about last year's Thanksgiving here, 2014's here, and 2013's here. After the race we headed over to visit my best friend Ang who was at her in-laws' home for the holiday. That was perfect as it put us driving about 15 minutes to see her, rather than the over 6 hours it takes us to drive from our house to visit her in Texas. I was long overdue to see my bestie and I was so glad we were able to do that! I enjoyed meeting her dog, Barkley, in person and both the kids loved petting her rabbit, Hopkins. Carter also enjoyed talking to Ang's niece who was a little bit shy. We headed out before they started in on their Thanksgiving dinner at noon which her mother-in-law was sweet enough to invite us to stay for. We swung by McDonald's thinking we'd pick up some breakfast but they were closed. It was pretty hilarious because we pulled into the drive thru where there was a line of 4 cars before Ty realized no one was getting their orders taken and they were all just waiting.

Posing with Ang in my race clothes.

Carter and Elise petting Ang's rabbit, Hopkins.

We got home in time to play for a while and then eat lunch before the kids went down for naps. When they woke up we played a little bit more and then I asked my mom to take some family pictures of us while we were dressed up so I will hopefully put together a Christmas card early enough to get it in the mail this year. Then we enjoyed a delicious dinner. Carter surprised me by asking for more meat and Elise ate her weight in sweet potatoes. Lucky for us, my mom made 6 pounds worth of sweet potatoes! After dinner we Facetimed with Gma and Gpa who were busy working in their basement on renovations in hopes they will completed before everyone comes home for Christmas in a few weeks. When it was time to put Elise to bed she kept pointing at the bed and I thought she meant she wanted to lay down so I'd put her in her crib only to have her pop right back up and want out. I finally realized she wanted to sleep in the bed so I laid her down and told her she had to stay in bed. I went up to check on her multiple times and she was still laying in the bed. I put Carter down in bed with her and there were some shenanigans initially because he wanted a sippy cup and then he wanted Harper to sleep with them. Then it was all quiet for about an hour so we all figured they were asleep and got busy playing card games. We all heard a weird noise and Ty got up to inspect. He said, "hi." And then we heard Elise bust it out running through the kitchen to get away from him. When I took Elise back up to bed Carter was sitting up in bed and told me, "I was asleep and Elise got out of bed and opened the door and it woke me up." I was cracking up and could tell he was afraid to leave the room because he knows the rules. I put Elise back in the crib and we didn't hear another peep after that. Elise is always making us laugh, that's for sure! I am thankful for my family every single day and felt especially thankful yesterday. It was a wonderful day filled with love and laughs.

I loved that they were holding hands! My little sweeties!

The kids laying together at bedtime.