Thanksgiving Weekend

One of my favorite times of the year is Thanksgiving weekend.  I think Christmas is my ultimate favorite holiday, but Thanksgiving comes in at a close second.  And I love the entire Thanksgiving weekend not only for Thanksgiving day itself, but also because it kicks off the Christmas season. Thanksgiving is so good because it's all about family, reflecting on what I'm grateful for, and experiencing/building traditions. This year was all of that and it was a special weekend.

We started out Thanksgiving day with our new favorite tradition for just our family of 4.  Issaquah does a great Turkey Trot run that benefits the Issaquah Food Bank.  I've always tried to do something active on Thanksgiving day and this event forces us to really make it happen and it's a great way to start out the day.  Last year it was bitterly cold.  This year it was a downpour.  But both times we got our butts out of bed, bundled up, and made the best of it.  I decided this year I would easily take rain over bitter cold.  And our boys did great in the stroller--kids are so resilient!  Nate started out running with me and then rode the rest of the run until the finish.  Both boys loved finding the stations to get their card punched so they could get a prize at the end.  Fun times.

Afterwards we raced home and the boys watched the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade (another tradition) while we got ready for the day.  Of course we couldn't leave the house until good ole Santa Clause came down the parade route.  :)

This year we enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with my family.  And our special guests were Carly and her sister, brother-in-law and nephew.  It was a really nice day of great company, yummy food, good conversation, and relaxing. (I realized after going through photos--we need to get my mom in more pictures!  She's always the one taking them.  Sorry mom!)

Annual tradition of putting out the "village" for Christmas

Pops and his boys

After the meal we went to the Spauldings to have dessert and enjoy time with the other side of the family.  Sadly I didn't get any pictures from that part of the day.  But we had delicious pie, watched football, digested, and enjoyed great conversation as usual.

We were ecstatic on Friday to watch the UW Huskies clobber Wazzu in the Apple Cup while hanging out with our friends the Ridges.

Then Saturday was another annual tradition of going to downtown Seattle to enjoy Black Friday sales and all the fun Christmas activities including seeing the Macys star and the Westlake Christmas tree lit up, watching the model trains in the Macys display window, riding the Carousel, and seeing the Gingerbread Houses at the Sheraton Hotel.  This has always been one of my most favorite days of the year with my family and I love getting to experience it all with my boys now and have it be a special tradition for them too.

Riding the Carousel!

This year the gingerbread houses were Harry Potter theme!

To cap off the weekend of fun we ended the Thanksgiving break with a visit to see Santa.  Nathan was fully prepared this year with his list of 47 ITEMS!!  Nana helped him compose his list a couple weeks ago.  Santa was astonished and a little overwhelmed.  He asked Nate to narrow his list down to 3 things.  :)  No tears this year with the big man.  I thought maybe Cam would be scared this year because Nate melted down at his age, but he was fine.  Just curious as to who the weird man was with the white beard and red suit.  Both sets of grandparents came along and then we all enjoyed a fun dinner at Red Robin.

Cheers to a successful, memorable, special Thanksgiving weekend!