This year we hosted the Jasper Thanksgiving!!! Everyone was so gracious to travel to Indianapolis, which was so nice considering Chris has to work a full-day on the Wednesday before break, so it would have been hard for us to travel. My parents arrived early and were a huge help in preparing. In fact, we really hosted together – mom and I did lots of shopping and prepping for the whole crew to show up. The boys loved, loved, loved having Nana and Papa here for so many days. Jesse is still asking for Papa first thing each morning.
The night before Thanksgiving Mom, Chris, and I were up late chopping, baking, and prepping food. Mom did the brunt of the cooking (thankfully), but Chris baked the pumpkin pie!!
Thanksgiving day was all-hands on deck. Everyone helped and we all enjoyed just being together. Such a fun day.
In addition to a LOT of eating, we did a lot of playing. It was a BEAUTIFUL day and everyone was able to play outside before and after our meal.
Auntie Britt and Jasper had matching shoes!
TIME TO EAT!!
All done eating and back outside for football…
Notice it’s getting dark?
Jesse was even in on the action, although he just wanted to rake. It was pretty funny actually. He was perfectly content as long as no one tried to take the rake from him. :)
The rest of the night the kids played in the playroom. Asher was up waaaay past bedtime. He was just so happy and having so much fun that it was hard to see the night come to an end.
By Friday the weather turned COLD… FAST! We bundled up and went to the Children’s Museum for the opening of their Christmas Jolly Days. It was a lot of fun and surprisingly not too crowded!! It beat shopping on black Friday big time.
That evening we ate pizza at the hotel and had a pool party. :)
Saturday the men took the kids to play at a gym and later that night we all went out to dinner. Since we were such a large group they seated us in meeting room in the back. It was awesome!
We tried to do the Christmas lights downtown afterward, and made it close enough to see them… but the ‘line’ to get into the circle was taking too long so we turned around and headed home.
Those were the highlights… I think some of my favorite moments were just sweet moments of cousins making forts in the playroom and adults playing games or talking in the family room. I asked Asher what his favorite part of the whole weekend was and assumed he’d say either the museum or the pool, but he surprised me by saying it was playing football. I love that that was his favorite memory and I’m so glad for chances to gather all of us together.
It is a blessing to all be together and it’s a blessing that we all still enjoy being together. The older I get the more I realize how fortunate I am that Chris and I genuinely enjoy being with both sides of our families for holidays. I think I’ve taken that for granted, and I’ve heard enough stories of family stress that I have a new appreciation for it. :)
Thank you to everyone for coming all the way to Indy to celebrate with us. We are thankful for all of you!!
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