Thanksgiving

Our turkey day was wonderful. Different but wonderful! Last year my sister-in-law hosted Turkey day at her house for the first time since moving back from New York.  Her house is PER-FECT for hosting family gatherings.  When Missy asked me what was easiest since we had a small baby I was happy to have Missy host again this year!

Rewind a few weeks…my father-in-law (who is suffering from Parkinsons) mentioned that traveling around is getting harder and harder on him.  So we decided to cut his traveling out of the day and brought Thanksgiving to them.

Missy did an AMAZING job of hosting while in someone else’s house!  She made A TON of food and brought it all over to her parents…eliminating any work for my in-laws.

 

She cooked it all at home and transported it. And she was amazing enough to not “make” me responsible for anything…talk about no pressure! Thank you! BUT I did a marvelous green salad, my infamous potato salad, chips & dip, cheese and meat platter and pies! haha I’m not one for cooking so all these were great. haha

We spent the day relaxing and playing…all very low key.  Since Owen and Ella (and Maggie of course) are the youngest we all took turns trying to keep them busy! haha

Ok lets be real…my kids wanted nothing to do with their parents…they LOVE their cousins Peyton and Bailey…and Uncle Chris is a good sport too which they totally love! So it was an afternoon of Connect 4, Monopoly, wrestling, etc.  Thanksgiving was actually chilly this year…so we kept the playing inside as much as we could.

Maggie watched and slept most of the day…

Turkey toes are the cutest…and she enjoyed her first Thanksgiving too!

The food was delicious…and I made sure to get a picture of Maggie and her first turkey!!
Its kinda a tradition…kinda.  Ella I did it with Ella’s first turkey…not so much with Owen!

The kids enjoyed their food.  I thought it was yummy as well.  Owen pretended to like apple cider just so he could drink something out of a fancy glass! haha That kid is hilarious.  Ella couldn’t stop “cheersing” with her capri-sun!

 
 

And then of course we did the family pictures…pictures we all will cherish forever.

I have to say it was pretty cool to celebrate a holiday in Yosh’s Redlands home house.  We haven’t done that in years!! Well…since we were married and started hosting most/all holidays.  That way we didn’t have to split our days and were able to be with both sets of parents!

5 grandkids on the Souza side….age difference is huge BUT that kinda makes it cool!  Peyton is old and mature enough to hold Maggie and me not have to worry about her. Bailey is old enough to watch the kids outside or wherever…its nice!  And my kids LOVE their cousins…regardless of what age they are!
 

After dinner, Ella changed into her cute “festive-wear” haha and we headed to Nana and Granda’s for dessert.

It was a wonderful day! And I can’t imagine next Thanksgiving when we’ll have a 7, 3 and 1 year old running around! yikes.

ps. And there was NO Black Friday shopping for this girl this year.  I took the year off because little Maggie Mae wouldn’t allow me out for too long.  #breastfeedingprobs