My Thanksgiving Sister

Thanksgiving was a whirlwind blast this year. My sister Jacque flew in to spend the week with us. It was really fun to have her, and her help was definitely appreciated. When I was in college, she flew out and spent Thanksgiving week with me one year; such fun memories. So now I have dubbed her (at least for the moment) my Thanksgiving sister. Here are the details of our non-stop week.
   It started on Friday. Justin took his test Friday morning and then had a couple of hours to prepare before heading off on his first scout camp trip. He had a lot of fun and I'm so glad he got to go. (Even though it was a little hard to send him out the door after having endured test week...but Thanksgiving made up for it.) Saturday night our dear friends watched the boys for us so we could go on a date. We went and saw the Lincoln movie. It was SOOO good. I highly recommend it. It really touched me and had I been in a room by myself I would have cried my eyeballs out. Anyways, Sunday was kind of a crazy day for me just because I had a lot of assignments to complete at church.

   Finally Monday arrived. I did my best to get the house cleaned up and finish up some last minute things. After Justin got out of class we did the last of my shopping for the missionary luncheon and then we headed off to the airport to pick up Jacque. When Jacque walked through the doors Matthew ran up and gave her a big hug and said, "You are my best friend Jacque!"  It was very sweet. The next morning at breakfast he sang a whole song about picking Jacque up from the airport and he detailed everything that happened. After picking up Jacque we took her straight to the Ranching Heritage Museum where the train lives.

They have a whole barn full of brands. When we found one with Jacque's initials, we just couldn't resist.

 There was this stage in the barn and the whole time we were in there Koyle walked up and down singing. He loved it so much and was heartbroken when we made him leave.

That night we went out and bought the paint for our chairs, and stayed up late to get the first coat of paint done.
   Tuesday morning after completing some more painting, Jacque and I set off to feed the missionaries. Justin skipped class to watch the boys for me which was fantastic. They had told me to plan on feeding 35-40 missionaries, but there ended up only being 28 there. So needless to say I ended up having LOTS of leftover food. But the whole lunch came together very nicely and it was a lovely afternoon. Tuesday evening we did a few more errands which included buying our Christmas tree.

Our Christmas tree shopping experience is a story within itself, which I will save for a later day.

It wasn't until about 9:30 that night that Jacque and I finally made it to the store to buy the food for Thanksgiving. Of course Wal*Mart was out of turkeys big enough, so we had to go to another store for the turkey. And of course it was another late night getting the last coat of paint on the chairs.
   Wednesday was a little more relaxed, but not much. We had to clean up the house, get 2 coats of the seal painted on the chairs, bake the pies, bake the sweet potatoes, and made Grandma's pumpkin roll (which we enjoyed during the movies). Then at 6 we loaded up and headed off to the drive in movies. The weather had been super nice all week, but it was really windy that night so we ended up watching most of the movies from inside the car. But it was still fun. The boys did great, and Jacque enjoyed holding a sleeping Koyle on her lap.
   Thursday was the big day. Lots of baking, Lots of dishes, and Lots of fun. Justin did the turkey and it turned out AMAZING. Everything came together perfectly at the end, despite an almost gravy disaster, and we had a fine Thanksgiving feast. We had the Carlson's over, as well as the family of a guy that Justin goes to school with. They had a little boy Matthew's age, who also liked trains, and they hit it right off. I really wanted to get a picture of everybody who was there sitting at the table, but I totally spaced it once we got to that part. Thursday night after cleaning up the kitchen we were finally able to just sit down and relax. We did webcam with my family in Phoenix which was fun. Then after getting the boys in bed we watched Elf. Well, some watched it but I fell asleep.
   Friday morning we headed off shopping to find Jacque some new shoes and scrubs. Then it was time to take her back to the airport. That afternoon Matthew said, "Mom, Jacque had to go home. We miss her." We sure do. It is always so fun when family comes to visit. Friday afternoon we did a little more shopping. We got the majority of our Christmas shopping done, we just have a few more things to get.
    Saturday afternoon we went a test drove a van, and then we spent the rest of the day hanging out at home. I put up the Christmas decorations. We watched some Christmas movies. Matthew seriously loves Christmas so the boy is in heaven right now.
 Today we put the ornaments on our tree. It was an awesome week. Now we are ready to get back to the daily grind and hit it hard before Christmas. I loving having time with my family and wish it could last forever.