Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving always seems like a LONG holiday.  I think that is because it is a busy one for the Schnake's.  We spend the morning at Nana's, the afternoon at Grandpa's, then we deal with the horrors/deals of Black Friday, and finally we round it out with a visit from good friends, Jared & Deb.

Whew!  Doesn't that just SOUND exhausting.  Add two kids under 5 and one on the way and it is a busy time! 

T'giving morning we arrived for brunch with Nana & G'ma Jan.  There was LOTS of love to spread around and we enjoyed a very nice and relaxing breakfast. 

After that we were off to Grandpa & Grandma Debi's for dinner.  We were hoping that Alaina would take some sort of nap so the day did not TOTALLY exhaust her--and well the 5 minutes in the van between families was about all she allowed herself to get. 

My goal once at Grandpa's was to get a few nice pics of the kids in front of the tree.  Whew!  You know that is a lot of work.  I think this time I was much more realistic realizing that a "nice" pic with the 2 of them just isn't going to happen.  (Okay--so I made that realization after I tried several bribes with candy & chocolate covered pretzels.) 

This Thanksgiving the boys, Rick & Ry, attempted to carve the turkey.  This was quite entertaining for all onlookers.  My favorite part was when Ryan was looking up inside the turkey like he expected to find something in there.  Ah--and then there was the search for the wishbone.  Thankfully Uncle Kirk stepped in to help out.  He guided the boys on slicing the turkey.  I took mental notes.  I bought a turkey at a great price and I have it in the freezer right now.  I plan to cook it up in the next month and have a fabulous dinner and then use all the turkey leftovers to make some casseroles that I can freeze and use once the baby comes.  I think this will be my first turkey ever (that I cooked!) I am excited. 

Overall, the boys did a nice job carving the turkey.  Dinner was fabulous.  I ate lots.  Alaina also had her fair share of food and especially enjoyed when Grandma Debi shared dessert with her. 

On Friday, we avoided the stores until later.  When we did go out, we weren't surprised to see the few things we had planned on getting were gone.  We then returned home and did some online shopping instead--getting the same deals with free shipping!  Woo-hoo!  (Why deal with the horrors of leaving the home anymore!?)

Saturday, Jared & Deb came to stay with us for the night as they were driving through visiting the family.  We had a very nice family visit.  The kids really got Uncle Jared playing and suckered him into reading lots of stories.  We went to church the next morning together and then returned home for a good lunch before they hit the road.  It was a wonderful long weekend.  It doesn't get better than good times with friends and family.