The Blanchard Family: Thanksgiving 2011

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Thanksgiving 2011

We had a great Thanksgiving celebrating with our families and enjoying lots of good food! Our Thanksgiving celebration started on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, when we headed over to Ashley's parent's house to have Thanksgiving with Ashley's Mom's side of the family. We had a big lunch around 12:30 of turkey, potatoes, corn, salad, bread, and stuffing. After we ate, the kids napped and we all just hung out and chatted and watched football. After naps, Kyler played with his cousins and Norah hung out and explored the house. We had some dessert after our food had settled a little bit and then some leftovers for a light dinner. We then hung out and enjoyed each other's company a little more, before everyone started heading home around 7:00.

Norah enjoying her 1st Thanksgiving!

Kyler enjoying his older cousins!

The "grown-up" table :)

Friday Erik had to work, so my mom and I took Kyler and Norah shopping for a bit in the morning. Don't worry, we didn't do anything crazy, just hit up Younkers and Target starting around 9:00--about as crazy as it gets with a 2 1/2 yr old and a 9 month old! :) Then Friday night we headed downtown for the Holiday Hoopla on Main Street. We had gone down last year, but it was so cold, we ended up leaving before Santa even arrived. This year was much better! Kyler was older so he was excited and knew what was going on and it was a lot warmer! Kyler loved listening to the music downtown and then when Santa came on a helicopter, that was even more exciting for him! Then one of the highlights of his night was definitely the fire works. I thought back and I don't think Kyler has ever seen fireworks before because we have always been in Minnesota over the 4th of July and when you are that far north, during that time of year, it doesn't get dark until like 10:00, so the fireworks are always too late to stay up and watch. But, Kyler LOVED the fireworks and has been talking about them ever since!

Then on Saturday we headed to Dows to Erik's Grandparent's house to celebrate Thanksgiving with his mom's side of the family. We got there around noon and enjoyed a big meal of turkey, ham balls, potatoes, salad, corn, and bread. After lunch the kids napped, and we hung out and watched more football and chatted. After the kids got up, they played for a bit and then we headed home.

On Sunday, we got up, went to early church, and then came home to get ready to go get our Christmas tree! We went to church early so that Norah could get a little later nap and that we could eat lunch before Erik got home from church. As soon as Erik was home, changed his clothes, and ate lunch, we loaded up in the truck and headed up to the Volga Valley Conservation Tree farm just east of Sumner to get our Christmas tree. I have said this before, but this is the place where I have always gone to cut down a tree ever since I was little. My parents went with us, as they went to get their tree too. It didn't take us long to find a nice, skinny (because we don't have a lot of space) :) tree for our house. Kyler was so excited he loved running around looking at all the different trees and then helping Erik cut down our tree. He even helped carry the saw back to the truck. :) After we had loaded up our tree and my parent's tree in our truck, Kyler told us he wanted to go get another tree! We said he'd have to wait until next year! Here are some pictures from our Christmas tree hunting!