Thanksgiving with Friends

We had our first Thanksgiving here in Michigan yesterday. It was also our first Thanksgiving in a while without any family present. My (Kris') mom has been coming out to Thanksgiving for a while now (once we moved to Indiana). However, since we are bringing out our parents for Christmas this year, it didn't make too much sense for her to come out, go back to Colorado, then come right back to then return home again. So we were "stranded" by ourselves in a new land (almost on an island since Michigan is almost surrounded by water) until our new friends here saved us. It was like Robinson Crusoe without the remote tropical island (think frozen tundra instead). OK, so it wasn't really like that at all. But it was really nice of our new friends, who also didn't have any family in the area, to spend some time with us on this fun day.

All told we had 22 here for dinner (however, 5 of those were Allees, so I am not sure if we count since we live here). Anyway, here is a picture of the kids table. It is the funniest table for the kids to choose since the table is an elevated table (with really tall chairs). In my past Thanksgiving experience kids' tables were always little card tables or something like that. Not this time though. Alyson told me that one of her friends finished dinner, but then didn't leave the table because she was scared to get down off the chair. There were three more kids playing in the living room since two of them can't eat turkey or green bean casserole yet (poor kids) and one kid wasn't really sure what all the food was for and wanted to just play (Sariah - who you can just see below in the next picture behind her Dad's left ear).


We brought out the old dining room table and chairs (it is nice to see them back in action again) and put it out it next to the kids table. This is where some of our friends who were concerned about their kids sat.


Finally, a bunch of us dodged our parenthood responsibilities and hid out in the dining room. A friend (Brian - not pictured above or below - sorry) was nice enough to take this picture so I could be in the picture with my beautiful wife.


We had a great time. After eating (too much) we all went downstairs and played games for a while. The kids just played upstairs in the playroom for most of the time, but when they found out we were playing with darts and other fun things in the basement they just had to come down and see all the action. We had some football on the TV, but the Cowboys and Seahawks' game wasn't that interesting (sorry about your Seahawks Craig).

All in all, it was a great day. We missed our family, but we were so thankful for good friends and company in thier absence. Now I have some other quick posts to make.

Wednesday, while I was at work, Jessica and the kids went out and played in the snow. Here are some pictures of Kourtney and Alyson.


I can't even call this a snowball fight. Both girls in ALL pink. There is nothing about this that looks like a "fight" of any kind.


Finally, on Thanksgiving morning, Jessica went up to Ella's room to get her ready for the day and this is what she found:


Somehow Ella had pulled her PJs off, without unzipping the zipper at all (nice how it is still zipped up and the zipper protector still buttoned). Either she has the ability to dislocate her shoulder to get out of PJs and straight jackets (ala Mel Gibson in the Lethal Wepon series), her shoulders are really small, or the neck of her PJs are too large. Anyway, we thought it was cute and wanted to share it with you all.

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving! Take care and enjoy your preparations for Christmas.