Thanksgiving 2014

So much to write about; so little time.

First, Thanksgiving. Oh, it was lovely. We staying in town this year to spend the holiday with Andi's side of the family. I love my family to pieces - love them - but, man, it was nice to wake up, drive 15 minutes to a relative's house and just be. No traveling. No airports. No long car rides. Granted, life with little kids means nothing is easy peasy, so it was still pure chaos packing up food and suitcases (we headed to the cabin afterwards for the long weekend) ... etc. Still, Thanksgiving was nice.

I contributed my mom's tasty mashed potatoes recipe which was a smashing success and my personal favorite Thanksgiving item - Corny Macaroni. If no one else ate a bit of that dish, I didn't care (um, more for me!) because it is to die for. No Thanksgiving is complete without it, in my opinion. I planned to blog my Aunt Cheri's family-famous Corny Macaroni recipe but ran out of time last week, so just picture piles of corn + cheesy macaroni = stick-to-your-ribs goodness. I overheard a few of Andi's relatives muttering to one another during a trip through the food line, "Is there corn in the macaroni?" Oh yes there is, and it is DIVINE.

I *may* have scraped the Corny Macaroni pan clean ...

Ain't no shame in my game. 

Then, seconds after Andi snapped this photo I spilled cheesy goodness down the front of my new sweater. Dang it. 

Aden was a shining star on Thanksgiving Day, of course. Last year, he was only a week old on Thanksgiving, so this was truly his first *real* Thanksgiving holiday. At least one where he got to eat real food. 

This is a picture of Aden and his Great-Grandma Marion. When I heard Andi's Grandpa Jerry (Marion's late husband) used to wear newsboy caps like this one back in his day, I knew Aden had to wear his to Thanksgiving at her house. Marion got such a kick out of seeing Aden wearing it. 

Tory had a blast at Thanksgiving, too, playing with her little cousins. Surprisingly, she loved the Thanksgiving meal itself (surprising because the girl survives solely on PB&J sandwiches, yogurt and Eggo waffles). Andi's mom Janie's favorite Thanksgiving food is some sort of green Jell-O salad with carrots and a dollop of mayo on top. Grandma Janie talked it up to Tory all morning and it turned out to be one of Tory's favorite Thanksgiving foods, too. She also devoured her turkey, bun and mashed potatoes.

Lindsay and I

He's only officially been in the family for a month, and Kyle carved the turkey(ies!).

Andi carved the ham.

The Thanksgiving spread. Actually, this was only half of it.

So thankful for this little family of mine.

Shortly after dinner, Andi, the kids and I left Grandma Marion's house for the lake cabin. I was so looking forward to spending the long weekend at our favorite place on Earth to recharge and reconnect. It's been a brutal few weeks of work travel for Andi and long weeks without much family time for all of us. And, of course, our weekend at the cabin didn't disappoint. More on our time there coming soon....