Giving Thanks...

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It is always a joy to spend holidays with family and friends.

We traveled to Bakersfield, California to visit my family. The trip takes about 8 hours. We left on Wednesday and it RAINED hard the entire way. It was a bit strange to travel while it was raining since we haven't had any rain in months. Thanks to John we made it safely.

On Thanksgiving day and after a few cups of coffee, I started off my day with a short, 6 mile run (yes, the streets were wet), but it made me feel better to get out and exercise before I started eating everything. My mom, Sydney and I worked all morning getting the bird ready and all of the goodies that go along with it. She had her house decorated so pretty. She usually goes all out. Everyone started to arrive about 2:30 p.m. My Nana, my oldest brother, Scott, and his wife, Janell, and their girls, Jenna, Allison, and Emily all came to eat with us. Jenna and Allison brought their boyfriends. It was really great to visit and eat together. Of course after we ate and cleaned up, we dug into the pies.

My kids love to visit Pa and Mema. They love playing with everything at my parents house. My dad has a workshop in his garage with everything in it. They build things and then paint them.... they could spend all day out there. Lucky for me I get to bring it all home. Thanks dad! They live in a cul-de-sac and the kids also enjoy a good old game of catch.

At 4:00 am on Friday we started home. It was great because the kids went back to sleep and slept for 3 hours. It made the trip quicker.