Thanksgiving

We spent the week with Jonathan and Kristy and kids.  They are loving and welcoming and it was a nice time.  Isabelle is being home schooled, so she and three year old Zachary are home during the day.

Isabelle, David, and Emily are all in school. Monday and Tuesday it was COLD.  Like 2 degrees outside in the morning! I think it was Monday night that Tom and Jonathan went outside and chopped wood.  Jonathan has a neighbor that cuts down trees, so they had several logs to dispose of.

That night it snowed, so Tuesday, the kids had to dig in the snow to find the wood in the pile and carry it to stack against the fence.  They went outside and played and worked for several house.  Tom and I went out for a little bit... but didn't stay out all that long.

For us it was a low-key visit. Here are some of us napping before early morning scripture study.

I did a little writing and then got beguiled by Kristy's novels. We introduced them to the Granite Flats series on BYU TV and watched a couple of those sessions.  We shopped for deals and bought some stuff online.  Some of us had a little less relaxing time than others.

Wednesday we celebrated Kristy's birthday.  Jonathan and I made her cake,  I worked some on the mashed potatoes, while Jonathan cooked the steaks from their home-grown steer.  Here is the family at the gift unwapping part.

The cooking was sort of non-stop for two days. Jonathan pitched in and helped a lot.

Thursday's Thanksgiving dinner was AWESOME!  Yummy turkey, yams, potatoes, beans, rolls... all the good stuff.  And of course pies, truffle, and left over flourless chocolate cake-- which is like a wedge of fudgey-brownie.

The time passed too quickly.  Friday morning we left to return home.  Here is sunrise Friday morning.

The 9 hour trip stretched to about 12 as we stopped at Ikea and shopped for several hours.  Then we stopped at Trader Joe's and Aldi's.  Add in gas stops and changes of drivers.  But it was kind of fun to do Christmas shopping.

Before we left home, we'd started decorating the house for our Dec 1 Empty Nesters activity.  We came home to more to do.  Plus, all the leaves on the trees?  They didn't stay there.  I think 90% are down now-- blowing across the driveway, scattered on the lawn and piled against the fence lines.

We put the tree on a low table since we were going to have little children at the house around Christmas.

Saturday we did some cleaning, some gift wrapping, and... um... er... I had to finish the book I'd borrowed from Kristy.  We had soup for dinner and I invited our neighbor Barb over.

Today I went to West Plains for their ward conference.  I was supposed to go visiting afterwards, but some of the Relief Society presidency was sick or out of town... so there was no one to go with.

The weather has gone from frigid to balmy.  But they are predicting a cold snap.  It includes sleet on Monday night, so I think we will be moving our Empty Nesters FHE back a week. No one wants to be out driving in iffy weather.