Great Thanksgivings

We saw our annual Christmas play at Casa Manana last night and decorated the family Christmas trees tonight and are fully ensconced in the holiday spirit, but first I need to give Thanksgiving its due by jumping back in time about 3 days and 500 miles to our trip to San Antonio.

Casa play!

But first first, the day before Thanksgiving, Cora had a friend over and they made a huge pile of leaves and jumped in it for 20 minutes. Sometime in the middle of that, Maggie waded in and refused to exit. She really likes these leaves you guys.

Later, we lost Maggie for ten minutes and finally found her in the garage, sitting inside her doggie stroller/bulldog chariot, waiting for a ride.

We hadn't taken a long walk in a few days and apparently she saw the garage was open, let herself out the back door, and decided to manifest her own destiny.

Once she was back safely inside, she tried very hard to play horses with the girls. She didn't quite understand the game, but I'm sure she was a value-add.

On Thursday morning we packed a couple bags and headed south on I-35 to San Antonio to eat our 1:30 Thanksgiving Day dinner with all four of my grandparents! Here's my crew, in the Army Residence Community, flanked by the dessert buffet my children inhaled later.

Speaking of the sugar devils- I must say I am awfully thankful for these three. They're so genuinely easy to travel with and were so well-behaved during a long day of car rides, a nice dining room dinner, and visits to both great-grandparents' apartments. They're my pack and I love how easy it is to love hanging out with them, at least 86% of the time.

I'm also so thankful for this guy, who has uncomplainingly driven thousands and thousands of miles to visit various members of my family for nearly every single holiday since we got married. This year was New Year's in Colorado, Easter in Houston, 4th of July in Colorado, Thanksgiving in San Antonio, and next up, Christmas in Colorado- he's always willing to pack up the car and the children and do all the driving and he makes my heart so happy.

Also making my heart happy, sitting at a table with both of my sets of grandparents. My dad's parents, who I spent every Thanksgiving with my entire childhood.

And my mom's parents. My grandpa turned 90 last week and is doing just amazing!

We spent time in each of their apartments. Grandpa talking war and life stories with James and Grandma and I talking family stories.

We walked down to the pond to feed the fish, as is tradition.

Here's Landon, at age 3, doing the same thing with my Grandpa in 2010.

I love so much that my kids have gotten to grow up knowing my grandparents as their own. They're so important to me. The strength, heart, and to-the-bone optimism of this woman, my Grandma Mary, is a daily inspiration, along with the cheerful texts she sends out to our family each morning talking about her day and letting us all know she loves us. They're a regular highlight of my morning.

We stopped by my Grandma Jo and Grandpa Jim's apartment next. The kids tried desperately to love on their traumatized cat and we all looked at some old pictures from my childhood, including one from my room they'd never seen. The girls thought it was very awesome that I'd shared a room with my sister too.

My Grandma Jo has always been a wonderful and prolific picture taker. I've decided it's where I got my archivist/historian tendencies. At one point Cora was sitting on her chair looking at pictures on my Grandma Jo's phone. The following conversation ensued:

Cora: “Why does it said “live” on top?”
Gma Jo, joking: “Because you’re alive!”
Cora: “Oh! Can I take a picture?”
Gma Jo: “Sure!”

Cora takes a picture of my Grandma Jim

Gma Jo: “See There’s your picture.”
Cora, surprised: “oh, I thought it would say ‘old’ on it!”

We cracked UP. It was great to spend time with them both.

From their apartment we drove out to a local park to let our well-behaved but close to unraveling children run and yell and run some more. After all the running we all realized we were pretty hungry. There wasn't any food at ARC so even though I'd brought snacks, we set out in search of a meal. And while I'm glad for the restaurant industry workers that so many people got to enjoy their holidays, I was very sad that absolutely NOTHING was open. Finally we found a Jim's and settled in for some 6:30 p.m. pancakes. Landon pointed out that we were a lot like that scene in The Santa Claus where Tim Allen is with his son at the Denny's on Christmas Eve and it was so true. But our pancakes were great and we were very thankful they were available.

Forty minutes and a generous tip later and we were back at ARC, settling the kids in for their slumber party in my grandparents' apartment. The girls slept in the pullout couch bed in the 2nd bedroom and Landon on a roll-away in the living room. The kids put on their pj's, James and my grandpa talked politics (they are of one infuriated mind when it comes to our current president), and then we headed down to our separate guest room a few floors below. It was the only room available to reserve and had two twin beds (thus, why the kids were sleeping in my grandparents' apartment). Claire was thrilled for us, "now you'll finally have your own beds!!"

On Friday morning we had breakfast in the dining room (more pancakes for everyone!), stopped by my Grandma Jo and Grandpa Jim's apartment again to say hi and goodbye, and headed north to Austin to stop at a dear friend's house who I hadn't seen in way too long and had, since I last saw her, knocked down her old house and built a fabulous new one. It was so great to see her- we talked about 100 mph for the few hours we had- while our six combined kids ran amok upstairs and James went to swim in their community pool.

We continued home about 2:30 p.m, stopped to get a happy but exhausted Maggie from doggie camp on our way in to Fort Worth, and pulled into the driveway around 6. It was a great Thanksgiving. I'm so glad we were able to see my grandparents and my friend (and not get James off his training/taper schedule- Nationals is this week!).

Yesterday we lazed about the house, got groceries, worked out (I continue to drag myself to Orangetheory and lovehate every minute), mailed our Christmas cards, and went to our Christmas play. Maggie slept the entire time. Even though every picture posted at doggie camp showed all the dogs outside romping and our indoor cat/bulldog lazing on the owner's living room rug, apparently that level of lazing is exhausting.

Doggie Camp Cam

It's been two days and she has yet to fully wake up.

The Casa Manana holiday play was a brand new one this year - Jack Frost. We didn't love it as much as last year's, but it was still really good and definitely something different. The songs were based off the Greatest Showman soundtrack, which the kids loved. It was fun to figure out which song was which along the way.

The kids continue to really enjoy those shows and take their theatre-going very seriously. Getting the children's series season passes each year has been one of our better parenting decisions and I love hearing the kids discuss the stories, acting, and technical details after each show.

We capped off our evening on the town with dinner at a nearby restaurant to celebrate the kids' amazing 2nd 6-Week report cards, and to indulge my need for a traditiona holiday frozen margarita.

This week is a short one, since we head out to Atlanta mid-way through (and then we leave for our Colorado Christmas 3 weeks from tomorrow, which just seems crazy), but this is our menu for the next six days we have at home. I hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving and a restful and sparkly start to your Decembers!

Sunday: Greek Bison Burgers on whole wheat pita, Greek Salad, Frozen Fries

Monday: Pumpkin Chili (my new favorite chili recipe; this round I'm adding ground turkey)

Tuesday: Pasta tossed with pesto, fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, and grilled chicken.

[in Atlanta to cheer James on at the U.S. Open! #TeamDad #OldManAndThePool]

Monday: Crock Pot Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Tuesday: Ground beef tacos, brown rice, black beans

Wednesday: Salmon cakes, mashed potatoes, side salad

Thursday: Crock Pot Red Beans & Rice, corn bread, green beans.