Well, we blew through another major holiday, and it went by in a blink. We celebrated Thanksgiving this past weekend.
On Thursday, we headed to Brookings to Dennie and Jenny's for Thanksgiving. We had a nice day at Jenny's house. We ate some good food, played a couple games and watched football. It was a little weird because Katie had to work and Jeff and Samantha didn't come, so it was basically us, Malia and Andy, and Dennis, Jenny, Jim, Barb, and Jenny's parents. So, our kids were pretty bored. They did go in the basement for a while and watched TV and hung out down there when they got sick of all the adults.
In the late afternoon, we left and headed to parent's house. Neither John or I had to work on Friday, so we decided to just head to Minnesota early. We got to my parent's house around 7:30pm and then had a pizza and watched some Home Improvement.
Friday was Elliott's 9th Birthday. I really cannot believe he is 9 already, and he is getting so big! He is super into Pokemon and Legos right now, and that's pretty much what all his birthday gifts consisted of. John and I got him some Pokemon cards at the card store, an Advent Marvel Lego Calendar, and a Lego Meck. He loved all of it. He is also still very cuddly and lovey, and he can still be sensitive at times, which Emma can prey on at times. He loves spending time with his friends and having sleepovers, and he also loves to sleepover at Jim and Barb's house because he knows he will get spoiled there. He does well is school, eats like a horse, and has adult-sized farts now, which is great. But, we love him and he really is the best 9 year old boy around.
On Friday, mom had to work and dad had some cooking to do, so all four of us headed to New Ulm. We went to the rec center and played some basketball. It was pretty fun to shoot around and burn off some energy. Once we got hungry, we headed to the Kaiserhoff for lunch. It was delicious. I had a Rueben and Chicken Spitzel soup, John had a brat burger, and Elliott had an adult sized cheeseburger and fries and Emma had chicken and fries. It was a good stop. We also went to Walmart to do some Black Friday shopping and then we stopped at the New Ulm Clinic to visit mom and see where she worked.
After visiting mom, we went back to the Rec Center for open swim. We had a blast swimming there. Emma really liked the obstacle course, and Elliott liked the slides and the zip lines, and John and I liked the hot tub. We swam for a solid 2 hours, and then decided it was time to go back to my parent's house. We stopped at Caribou for a birthday drink celebration for Elliott, and then we headed back.
We had some Spaghetti for supper, and then the kids stayed with my parents while Ryan, Emily. Cody, John and I went to Sleepy Eye to the brewery. We enjoyed some beers and visiting for a couple hours. It was really nice to be able to catch up in a smaller setting.
Saturday was Thanksgiving with my family. We ate at noon and enjoyed some great food and wine. We also just visited, played some games, and Elliott opened some more gifts. It was a pretty chill holiday, but we all had a good time.
We headed back home Saturday night, we were ready to be home again. We unpacked, settled in, and then called it a night. Sunday was a catch up day. We did laundry, cleaned, and got ready for another week. We did go to Bethel in the evening and played some more basketball, to give the kids some practice. We ended up scrimmaging with the Tomczaks for 2 hours, it was really fun.
Emma had a basketball game Monday night, and they won by 2 points. It was really stressful at times, but it was a fun game.
Now, we are getting ready to say goodbye to November, and we are in full Christmas mode around here. I love this time of year!
