Thanksgiving 2011

This time of year is so full of fun activities, time off from work, and comforting traditions. I love it! My cousin Katryn and her boyfriend Josh arrived in Seattle on Monday, and I got to join them with the family for dinner. It is always so nice to spend time with my cousin, since I only get to see her once or twice a year (and she always comes to us...I'll get back down to Texas one of these days!) Her sister, Anni, and her son, 'Io (four) arrived on Wednesday to stay with us for two nights. 'Io and Kaitlyn get along perfectly (I really don't think they had one single "issue" the whole time he was here), and it's really fun to see them play together. Austen, too...they all love each other. :) Kaitlyn was upset when she found out that 'Io had left and wasn't staying with us anymore.

On Wednesday evening, all the "big kids" hung out at our house and played "Mad Gab." I recommend this game for lots of laughs...and maybe some friendly squabbles. ;-) We had a great time reminiscing and laughing like no time had passed since we (well, Katryn, Anni, Rob and I) were in elementary school. I have such great memories of these two girls visiting for weeks in the summer. I feel lucky to have relatives as such close friends.  

This year, my parents were on the rotation for Thanksgiving dinner. As usual, my mom wowed us all with her amazing cooking (Grandma Bonnie doesn't disappoint either - we are spoiled with good cooks!) And, if I would have known that I'd be getting the stomach flu later that night, I would have allowed myself another helping! I attempted Black Friday shopping at midnight with Kara, but had to officially give in around 12:30 when I realized that I was indeed sick. Good thing I left when I did...I'll just leave it at that. :-)

So, the rest of our Thanksgiving break was spent laying around trying to feel better. Jeff started feeling under the weather, too, so we layed low. Oh well, there's always Christmas break.

I am in a bit of a picture rut, so I didn't get a single shot during the week. Oops! In leu of posting Thanksgiving pictures, I'll just continue with my slow process of catching up on posting pictures.

Here are a couple of Jeff's bedtime routine with Austen. He started this with Kaitlyn when she was around this age, and I just think it's the cutest thing ever. She sits on the edge of the crib while they look out the window together. Austen's big thing has been finding kitties. You ask her where the kitties went and she says, "Um...nigh-nigh." The kitties all went night-night. :-) By the way, her latest Austen-ism is "Umm..." before a lot of her answers.