Giving Thanks

We had the very best Thanksgiving weekend down in Richmond.  Some highlights:

+ My mom made a delicious feast.  I was in charge of sweet potatoes and a pumpkin crumble, and both had pretty much the same ingredients- sugar, brown sugar, and butter.  Yumm.  I didn't get a picture of our group (us, my parents, Ty, Beth, and the missionaries) but it was a lot of fun.  Oh, and Minnie Mouse joined us also.

+ On Thursday night my mom and I went out for our first ever Black Friday (or do we call it Black Thursday now??) shopping experience.  My mom got some Christmas gifts and I got... wait for it ... a vacuum.  And since I bought our last vacuum 4.5 years ago for $30 this one is a vast improvement and I'm in love.  Just call me June Cleaver.

+ Bryan shaved.  No Shave November is fine with me, as long as it only lasts a month.

+ Mattie was sicky-sick-sick.  Remember back in August when I was sick and wished that my kids would lose their voice?  Wish granted.  Baby girl woke up Friday morning and had no voice and it was equal parts the sweetest and saddest thing.  The cough that came with it was awful and caused more than a few missed hours of sleep.   

+ Christmas Lights at Stony Point Mall- It was oh so cold, but still fun

+ Bass Pro Shop to see Santa.  Jilly would only go up if Tyler came along and there was no way Mattie would get near Santa without me, so thus the group shot.  And, I have the greatest family ever because we waited in line for an hour and I heard nary a complaint.  It helped that there were $1 hot dogs for sale in the parking lot- a big hit with the menfolk.

+ Very notable: my hometown is getting a Cafe Rio this January!!!  Can't tell you how exciting this news is.

+ Short Pump Town Center (so maybe we went to two malls in two days.)  They've recently renovated and it is gorgeous.  We didn't even go in any stores (tragic) but had a great time walking around and enjoying the decorations.  Jilly especially loved the Christmas tree- it was super tall and you could walk right through the middle of it on the second story of the mall.  Jilly hasn't stopped talking about it.  And Mattie loved the train ride best.

+ We took some pictures of the girls by the fireplace at the mall.  This picture cracks me up- Bethany was playing peek-a-boo to get Mattie to look so she started playing along.

+ No pictorial evidence but we also saw Mockingjay (pretty good but depressing, as expected) and Interstellar (awesome! I haven't stopped thinking about it.)  I also went to a boot camp class at the gym with my dad and it kicked my booty.  At church on Sunday I talked to a girl I grew up with but haven't seen in about 12 years.  When she first saw me she said to her mom, "Is that who I think it is?" and her mom replied, "No, that's her daughter."  Further proof that I am very quickly turning into my Mom- could be a lot worse :)