Thanksgiving, Huge Surprise, A 16 Year Old, Swimming, Lots'a Lattes

Days in the Life...

Monday morning Mom headed out early to get all the grocery shopping done for our Thanksgiving week celebration with all of her side of the family. At both Costco and Win-co she had to do two trips through the store because she could only fit so much in the cart. When she got home the car was overflowing and it was all hands on deck to get it unloaded and put away.

Chloe had 30 pans of cinnamon rolls to bake in order to fill all the orders people had placed for the week. Mom picked up over 100 lbs of basic supplies for her like flour, sugar, milk, etc while she was out.

Dad was finishing up stuff for work to be able to take time off later in the week and the rest of us had our own things to finish up. The littles got to take the week off of school.

In the evening the first group of family arrived for the week. It was so good to get to hug Aunt Amy, Uncle JC, Rowan (2 almost 3), and Eli (almost 1), from DC.


Tuesday was Christian's 16th birthday! Mom and Dad took him to Seven Mile Cafe for breakfast and picked up a few more grocery items, including Blue Bell Ice Cream for dessert later.

I watched Kate and Blaire for just a couple of hours that morning and then got to go home and visit with Aunt Amy and celebrate the fact that Christian and Chloe both get to go to Summit Ministries next summer like I did!

Blaire just crosses her ankles and hangs out.

In the evening Nana, Grandfather, and the others came over to have pizza and ice cream for dinner in honor of Christian's birthday. Our little cousins had to go to bed soon after dinner, but the rest of us finished the evening by watching "Parental Guidance". 

Wednesday we all worked together to finish last preparations around the house and such. 

I've been using my bullet journal to take notes on this 

personal development book. Essentialism.

In the afternoon Uncle Adam, Aunt Lini, Geneva (7), Charissa (6), and Sierra (5) arrived from South Texas. Our cat, Coal, ran for the hills when the storm of little girls came running. (Coal was a Christmas gift several years ago. I named him. He is black. We got him for Christmas. See what I did there?)

It was a beautiful day outside and the kids were out there having a blast for hours, while everyone else got settled and began visiting. 

Chloe baked cinnamon rolls all day Monday through Wednesday and by Wednesday evening they were ready for pick up and delivery. I went with her for one of her last deliveries and it was so beautiful to watch the sunset while we drove through the country. Texas is so pretty, y'all. 

That evening we visited with Aunt Amy and Uncle JC, who were staying at our house for the night. Uncle Adam and his family stayed next door with Nana and Grandfather, other family stayed at a hotel, and Chloe and Christian, who gave up their rooms, slept in a camper that we borrowed from friends. 

Thursday morning Thanksgiving day arrived!

Everyone at our house was awake (ish) somewhat early since Rowan and Eli are early birds. Breakfast was cinnamon rolls (we finally got to eat some after getting to smell them for three days!!!), eggs, fruit, granola, and yogurt. Everyone ate at the house they slept in.

About 8:30 Aunt Lauren and Uncle Phil finally arrived as the last family members yet to make an appearance that week and with them was the surprise! Nana's brother and his wife came all the way from Florida to surprise her for her 70th birthday which we were also celebrating that week. It was so fun to get to see her face when they got out of the car. We were all on the driveway waiting for them and then Nana finally made it outside having to be dragged away from the kitchen.

After lots of hugs and smiles out on the driveway, everyone made their way inside to get coffee and settle down to watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I got to ensure my title as favorite oldest niece by making Uncle Adam a salted caramel latte. Not that my title was in jeopardy or anything, of course.

Enjoying the songs sung by people none of us had ever heard of. 

Everyone all together again.

Baby Eli got lots of snuggles.

Gabe with his marshmallows...and a splash of hot chocolate.

We had snack-y foods out for lunch that could be gotten whenever people were hungry. After the parade, Uncle Adam, Christian, and I teamed up against Chloe, Ava and Uncle JC to play Taboo. It's amazing what you can learn about people while playing that game...

The little girl cousins really enjoyed playing outside with Mia all weekend and Rowan followed Mia around everyone his mommy would let him. 

We ate our big Thanksgiving dinner about 5:00 pm. Everyone had a part of the meal they were responsible to prepare so it wasn't a big task for any one person. And with everyone working together, cleaning up took no time at all either!

The 30+ year old crowd sat in the dinning room and the rest of us were in the breakfast room, there was no way for all 24 of us to be at the same table. *wink* 

In the evening some watched football. Sorry, I have no idea who was playing. And some watched the new "Anne of Green Gables". We decided it was pretty well done, but it felt both extremely rushed and really drawn out at the same time. Nothing can really replace the original in our minds. 

Friday morning all the ladies headed to Denton to visit over coffee at Starbucks and then do a little shopping, while the men took all the kids to the park with a picnic lunch. Chloe had some college deadlines to work on and enjoyed the quiet house. 

Dancing to Justin Timberlake. 

Once we finished shopping, all the ladies met with everyone else at the park to eat before going home for some rest time. 

Late afternoon everyone congregated in the living room to play Uncle Phil's awesome game show! Since we were celebrating Nana's 70th birthday all the items in the game were things that were created or used or whatever else, during her lifetime. We split into two teams straight down the middle of the room and the competitive child Christian kept score, because, you know, that's important... 

After that Grandfather set us up with a crossword puzzle. The guys went to one room and the girls to the other and we saw who could get the most words right in the given amount of time. It was very close, but the girls won. Naturally. 

Dinner was two different kinds of chili. 

Cousin fun.

Chloe and Christian held down the fort at our house with all the kids and "Ratatouille" while the adults went next door to visit after dinner. 

Saturday morning my friend Emily came out to take pictures for us for a couple of hours. She did a beautiful job and we got lots of sweet pictures of different family groups and all of us together, etc. 

More football was watched in the afternoon and I got to enjoy the role of barista and make I don't even know how many lattes at peoples' request. 

Later in the afternoon Uncle Phil divided us into two teams to do an outdoors scavenger hunt. We had to take pictures of all kinds of things from people locked in the chicken coop, to someone doing something that looks dangerous, to something dead, to the attack of the tree people, and everyone's least favorite, putting everyone's feet in the pool. *Que a lot of screaming* 

Viewing the pictures from the two teams.

I had to leave after that to go to church early to sing and the rest of my family joined me in time for the service. 

Sunday was very quiet. Uncle Adam and his family were on their way home and everyone else had their own plans. 

We made our brunch meal and had a restful afternoon. 

We visited with Uncle Tom and Aunt Wanda before dinner and told them goodbye since their flight was early the next morning. 

That night we watched our first Christmas movie for the year, "Christmas Wish". 

The Herd: Quoted 

"I didn't choose to be so popular, it just happened!" -Mia in reference to her great popularity with all her little cousins.