Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania (the long version)

This year, we broke our tradition of eating out on Thanksgiving, and decided that 12 years was long enough away from family on this holiday. Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Mat and I and the kids hopped in the car, hoped against hope that we wouldn't hit a lot of traffic, and headed to our parents house in western Pennsylvania.

The hope we had for not hitting traffic ended when we got into New York and New Jersey and sat for many hours - crawling our way across these two states. By 6pm, and after the kids have been in the car for nearly 6 hours, we took a break. We were contemplating what it would be like to continue on like this for hours on end - knowing that we had the majority of our trip ahead of us. A normal 7 1/2 hour drive took us 10 hours. We didn't get to my parents house until midnight on Wednesday. But we were glad the drive was behind us, and glad we decided to push through.

Thursday morning, the kids didn't understand the need to sleeping in, and were up and ready to go by 7am. My grandparents had also spent the night, along with my nephew "E", so everyone was up and ready to go. My parents always host Thanksgiving at their house, so the day was bound to start early anyway.


Mat decided to do the annual "Turkey Trot 5 K" with his parents this morning, so he was gone by 8am.

My Godparents, Chris and Mary Louise came over this morning to have breakfast with us and visit. It was nice to see them. We haven't seen them since the summer.



Mary Louise spent some time doing art with the kids after breakfast. Finley was her fast friend, and enjoyed getting snuggles.

After they left, Mat returned and it was time to get started on the days preparations. I (and Mat) are not turkey lovers, but we enjoy the other fine foods of the Thanksgiving meal.

Arlington took one look at the uncooked turkey and basically declared herself a vegetarian. Just kidding. But she wanted no part of that bird. She backed away when it was brought out of the fridge and didn't want to help getting it ready for the oven.

Instead, she sat and read a book to my grandmother while my grandmother peeled potatoes. They were having a race - who could be done first. Arlington won, which was surprising.



We watched the M@cy's Thanksgiving parade on TV and got the tables set for the guest.

Finley was great at setting the table. She put animals and toys at each seat at one of the tables.

And of course, left a seat open for herself.

Then after that, she spent some time wrestling a giant Scooby Doo stuffed animal.


The guest arrived in the early afternoon and we ate a ton of food. It was a good time had by all.

This is my Nanny (my dad's mom)

(This is my SIL Tricia and her brother and mom)

After everyone left, and everything was cleaned up. Mat and Arlington sat around and played Othello before it was time for bed.
Our nephew "E" had a fun time and played so nice with the little kids. He would sit down next to Finley and Cainan and have a "baby language" conversation with them. It was pretty hilarious.

Here is "E" because he is just too cute not to photograph




Friday - My mom and I were up before 6am for our Black Friday shopping trip. First stop - T@rget! We were in there exactly 10 minutes. We walked in - the line was wrapped all the way around the store. We looked around for fun and laughed at the people standing in that ridiculous line, and then we left. Honestly - if that was going to be my only stop, I would have probably been in that line. But, not needed anything that badly, we went to breakfast at P@nera Bread instead.

After breakfast, we hit the mall, and were quite successful. It is fun being at the mall around 7am with 100's of other people. The sun was just coming up, and some of those people have been there for hours. We were laughing because a Mexican restaurant was open around 9:30am for lunch for all of the people who have been there since 4am.

After our fun morning, we had lunch and headed home to get ready for our family photo. We were all getting our picture taken together - our family, my brother's family, and my parents. We coordinated so nicely! After Christmas, I will post the picture. It is being given away as Christmas presents, so I don't want to spoil the surprise. But, if you follow me on Facebook - I might put it on there.

The picture taking was comical to say the least. We got some really good ones, but not without a lot of effort! The kids are flipping hilarious when it comes to getting them to sit still. Cainan decided at one point he wasn't happy with "E's" hair style and started messing it all up.

After that, we went to dinner with my brother and his family and then Mat and I and my SIL Tricia went to see "New Moon". Yes, I am a child and have read the Twilight series books. I HATED the second book (New Moon) and the movie proved how cheesy and dumb that book really was. The movie was AWFUL. They could have done so much better! The action scenes were good, but it was very, very cheesy. And Arlington will NEVER be reading this series due to the message it sends to young girls.

Moving on.........

Saturday morning we headed to Mat's parents house for the remainder of our weekend. We had a nice weekend there.

Saturday it had snowed a little bit, so the kids were excited to see that on the ground. We spent the day visiting with Mat's parents and his sister Jess and her husband Tom. Jess is Arlington's buddy. Arlington is totally smitten with her, and idolizes her. We cannot thank Jess enough with the enormous amount of time she spends with Arlington (all the kids for that matter!) She is a fantastic aunt, and someday will be a wonderful mother.

We had a ton of wonderful food - my MIL is the most amazing cook! We were stuffed to the gills over the weekend with all the great food.

After dinner, Pappy and Gramma played a fishing game with the kids.

Finley had a hard time seeing this game, but that didn't stop her. She would stop the game from going around and around every once in awhile, hook the fish, then start the game back up.

In the meantime, Aunt Jess and Arlington built a town for Polly Pocket and her friends.

At dinner time, Finley and Cainan wore their balloon hats in their own special way.

Sunday the weather was nice, so the kids were outside playing. My in-laws had bought an electric car for the kids to all share, so they enjoyed riding around in that.




Finley's hero - her Uncle Zac - came over on Sunday to visit. She loves that man, and he is really great with her. We are so lucky to have such wonderful aunts and uncles for our kids!


Finley never left Zac's side the whole day. He was going to sleep good after his visit with her - she is a maniac.

Sunday evening was spent relaxing and just winding down. Mat and I got all of our stuff together knowing that in the morning we would start our long drive back to Connecticut.

The kids played with blocks and had a great time.

Gramma Sally spent time with Arlington doing mazes and seek and finds.

And she and Arlington read Cainan a book. Cainan found it necessary to put his hood on for this event.

Then he wore it for awhile.

The kids built a little fort around Aunt Jess's dog, Target. I don't think he really liked this idea.

Monday - we headed home. The ride went very smoothly, and again, we only had to make one stop! I was very pleased. We have great travelers for kids, that is for sure. They didn't complain at all and entertained themselves very well. We listened to Christmas music, they played, we ate, and they watched a movie or two. We were home by 6pm, and had everything put away and kids in bed by 7:30. Not too shabby.

We were glad we went home for Thanksgiving. Mat and I haven't been home since before we were married. We have always either had to work, or lived too far away to make it in for this short holiday. Christmas will be spent in Connecticut this year, so I am glad we went.

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday. Only 24 more days until Christmas!!! Whoo hoo!!

See you Saturday.