Thanksgiving 2016

Everything's bigger in Texas, including Thanksgiving.  We had 2 Thanksgiving events to attend on the last Thursday before Thanksgiving break.  I don't remember having "thanksgiving events" growing up or even when I taught in STL.  Ada had a little program and lunch at her school at 11:30 and parents were invited for a Thanksgiving feast at Ruby's school at 12:30.  It was a tight schedule, but we made both!

Ada had been telling us for a couple weeks that she was going to be the cabin at for her program. Hehehe!

 She did amazing hold that cabin up while her teacher read (a version of ) the Thanksgiving story!  We ate a quick lunch of all the typical Thanksgiving fare and then zoomed off to Ruby's school in time for a delicious school lunch!

Last year, Ruby laments that it wasn't a real holiday because we weren't with any of our family.  Since the girls and I had the whole week off we decided to make the drive to Omaha to visit Sam and Logan this year.  Steve took Wednesday and Friday off of work and we hit Tuesday evening.  We got to the Texas/Oklahoma boarder that night and had another long day of driving Wednesday.

 Let me tell you there is NOTHING in Oklahoma or Kansas.

 We made it in time for dinner that night and my parents got in right after us.

Sam and Logan live in the cutest house and neighborhood.  They are basically in the middle of a community garden/playground.  Ruby and Ada loved playing in the adventure playground behind their house, picking books from the little free library, and chasing the chickens around the yard.

Chasing Chickens from Steven Nelson on Vimeo.

Logan pretty much single-handedly cooked a yummy thanksgiving meal on Thursday.

 Friday we went to the Omaha zoo, watched some Gilmore Girls revival, and got family pictures taken.

We headed out right after lunch on Saturday to start the long trek home with a pit-stop in Manhattan Kansas.  Our friends, Aaron and Audrey, from St. Louis live there now and it was so much fun to stop and see them and their amazing 3 boys.  Plus they cooked us chili and brownies!  (As we backed out of their driveway I realized we didn't take any pics- boo.)

We were very thankful to get home after another looooong day of driving on Sunday (hello traffic!), but Steve and I did comment on how much easier it is to travel now that (one of) our children (ahem) sleeps.  I am thankful for melatonin and the drastic difference it has made in the life of our family this year!

And, of course, we are thankful that we got to spend time with family!