Thanksgiving!

As we sat around the Thanksgiving dinner table...here are a few of the things we were thankful for this year...employment, family, friends, food, psp's, cheap gas, testimony of the Savior, vacations...to name a few!

This was definately one of my favorite Thanksgivings I have had!! Stacie and Jess live in Mississippi and so we are the closest family to them so we decided to get together and meet at our timeshare in Branson, Missouri! We were able to get the penthouse which had 2 bedrooms, 2 baths down and a bedroom and bath up, kitchen, washer/dryer and our favorite part was a hot tub on the deck that overlooked the golf coarse and city! It was awesome! We met on Wed. night and did some last minute shopping for our big Thanksgiving meal. I wanted to be really traditional since it was Sophi's first Thanksgiving so we had a fresh turkey(second turkey we had to buy, since the first one thawed out in my garage and was declaired "unsafe" by 1800turkey), real mashed potatoes, yams with marshmallows, stuffing, rolls, jello, greenbean casserole, and pumpkin cheesecake and chocolate baked pie for dessert! This may seem like no big deal, but Stacie and I being the youngest girls out of 6...we are usually given the assignment of stirring the gravy and "DON'T LET IT BURN" type of duties...so a whole meal with no older sisters or moms to help...is a big deal! We did fabulous and everyone, including ourselves, were so proud of us! Stacie even brought us cute little aprons! WAY TO GO STACIE!! Ok, I guess I have to give props to Jess for carving the turkey and the chocolate pie(homemade...his grandmother's recipe) and Derek for stirring the gravy and not letting it burn!! Good job boys!









Then we had fun playing outside, it was a gorgeous day. We played at park and the tennis court and basketball court and then inside for some run around ping pong! I think I was the champ...right Jess?? You can see me on the phone...this is where we heard the exciting new news that Matt and Jenny are having another baby!! Congrats guys!





Thursday night we relaxed, watched basketball, and played hot tub games;)...in my defense, Brock was underneath my robe(yes, that is right...each room came 2 Worldmark robes)...hence the wideness!!
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Black Friday, we went to the outdoor mall and after lots of traffic were able to find parking. We got pictures with Santa and did a little shopping, but mostly window shopping! We then headed over to Branson's hot spot...the Buffet which has the largest banjo and violin in the world!
It was a GREAT holiday and we are so thankful to have Stacie and Jess close by so they can come and experience a few of our favorite vacation spots. We hope to plan many more vacations in the next three years they are here!