Thanksmas

We were up bright and early Friday to celebrate Thanksmas!

Eli was the most fun to watch open presents this year; he LOVED everything and said over and over, "I'm SO happy!"

 

 

Colin is hard to buy for because he's happy playing with whatever Alison and Eli get.  

And Alison's at that odd stage where she still loves getting Barbies and stuffed animals, yet wants earrings and books.  Her favorite present was season 2 of the Little House movies and spent the next several days trying to binge watch the whole thing (she only made it through 2 DVD's).

 

 

 The kids were extremely thoughtful this year.  Without any prompting from us, they had specific things they wanted to give Nana, Grandady and Uncle Jordan.   They each did extra chores around the house to earn enough money for what they wanted to buy and then bought it themselves at the store.  What really got me was what they chose were things they could do together.  I also found it surprising that this came on a year that we didn't make any gifts.  Previous years we've made tea towels or jam or paintings or ornaments, but this year I decided to go low-key and click "order" on Amazon.  Needless to say, it was encouraging to me and I was so proud of them.

Nana and Grandaddy opening Life from Eli

We had tea pastries for breakfast and then played with all the new toys.  Colin got these awesome blocks and many castles and towers were built.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the afternoon, Kent took our annual family pictures.  It was unusually warm that day and mosquitoes were eating us alive!

 

  

I'm curious to see how these pictures turn out.  First of all, Eli would have no part in the outfit I picked out for him and insisted on wearing this red shirt.  I decided I would rather have him smiling than a matching outfit, so I gave in to the random red shirt.  And his hair really needs a trim, but I definitely did not have time for that; we were much too busy playing.  AND he really just wanted to be in pj's in the house, so I told him if he smiled well for pictures, he could have a piece of candy and change into pj's.

"There.  I smiled.  Can I go change now?"

2 seconds after pictures, already in pj's

Second, we found out after pictures that Alison was striking a pose in every single one.  So she'll probably look something like this in all of them:

 

After pictures, we had dinner: perfecto pork, nonny potatoes, applesauce, salad.

All that yummy food made the boys super sleepy.

 

It was a sweet day and looking back at all these pictures is making me very hungry!  We may be having that dinner over again for real Christmas!