Practically Perfect!

I have to say that this was just about the best Thanksgiving ever. We started it off on Wednesday with a family trip to the zoo and then a total cleaning of the house (aren't holidays so much better with a clean house?). Thanksgiving morning Christian took Kate out on an adventure while I stayed at home and cooked. It was nice to be able to cook without having little hands slip secret ingredients in while I'm not looking.

I was in charge of the turkey, corn bread, green beans, sweet potatoes, spinach/artichoke dip, and pumpkin cheesecake. My friend Sydney took on the mashed potatoes, rolls, stuffing, cranberries, and gravy. Between the two of us, it was quite the spread. We both made things we had never made before and we did a very good job (I'm not bragging, just stating the facts). Everything was delicious!

I was very proud of my turkey!

Here we are in front of the spread-

And here we have Matt, Charlie, and Sydney, ready to sink their teeth into a wonderful meal.
We ate and ate. I checked my blood sugar like I usually do and it was 138, 18 higher than it should be. Oh well, it was worth it! After dinner, there was a fight over the wishbone. Poor Christian went wishless as he pulled the short-end of the stick.

Neither Kate nor Charlie were super interested in the traditional Thanksgiving foods. Charlie mostly stuck to olives and cheerios while Kate ate about 6 Clementine oranges. Once dinner was over, they played and played and played. Kate has a little pop-up tent and the two little ones kept chasing each other in and out of it and then keeling over in laughter. They also spent about 20 minutes reading to each other. It was very sweet to see them playing together.

After a wonderful night, Christian and I bade the Taylors farewell, tucked Kate into bed, and curled up on the couch to watch Elf. It's one of our favorite Christmas movies because it's the first movie we watched together when I first got home from my mission. I was blissfully happy, but only lasted about half the movie before I fell asleep with my head on Christian's shoulder. As Christian shuffled me off to bed after the movie I remembered that I was planning on going to Walmart at midnight to get a Shark mop. I wasn't even thinking straight at that point and knew I couldn't make the trip. This morning when I woke up and walked into the living room, I couldn't believe it! In my head I thought, "Saaaannntttaaaa!!" (in a Will Ferrel/Elf voice). There, in the middle of the living room floor, were all sorts of wonderful surprises including a new carseat for Kate, a 5 quart slow cooker (I have only a 2 quart and have been dying for something bigger), a waffle maker, THE SHARK, and a shop-vac. I was really surprised that Christian bought a shop-vac. I was trying to remember if he had mentioned wanting one, or if I had said something about wanted one, but couldn't come up with anything. Shortly after I looked on facebook and saw Christian's status update. It said, "I just bought a shop vac for $15. I don't need a shop vac, or even really want a shop vac, but there were only ten of them, and everyone around me was fighting over them, so I instinctively lunged in and grabbed the last one just as an old lady was trying to take it. The only lady will probably be thankful for me tomorrow when she has $15 and I am stuck with a shop vac." I started laughing so hard tears started welling up in my eyes. I was still laughing as I walked in to wake Christian up and tell him thank you. While we were chatting about his Walmart adventures (it was a pretty hilarious story including some serious sneaking around grabbing items before they went on sale), I asked him about the waffle maker. He said, "Haven't you wanted a new one for a long time?" I said, "Yes, and you got me one for Mother's Day, remember?" Christian is just such an awesome husband, he gets me whatever I want, and he gets it for me twice.

Kate loves her new carseat. She giggled every time we put her in it. She was so busy looking out the widow she didn't blink for at least five minutes.

Just to make the week even better, we went and got a Christmas tree today. Our whole house smells amazing.
Kate had a blast decorating the tree. I think the trick will be teaching her that the ornaments stay on the tree. We'll see how it goes.

These last few days couldn't have been any better. The song, "There's no place like home for the holidays" kept going through my head. I love my little family. I love the traditions we are starting. I love being with them and how happy they make me. "For the holidays you can't beat home sweet home!"