Thanksgiving Weekend

This past weekend was one of the more relaxed Thanksgivings we had. Remember last year, when we were in Peru and I was mugged? No mugging this year. Bonus! Mark’s sister had the family over and it was a fun flurry of food preparation for a few hours. Mark’s mom made this fun turkey veggie plate as an appetizer. Thank you, pinterest!   Someone decided we needed to boil the turkey neck. Now, Jafta has eaten everything known to man. He’s the kid that will eat a mussel straight out of the ocean or a cricket off the ground. But apparently, he has met his match with the turkey neck. NOT HAVING IT. His disgust in this photo cracks me up. Of course, that didn’t stop him from gleefully picking over the carcass of the turkey as an appetizer. We all wrote down some of the things we are thankful for on a big bulletin board my sister-in-law made. Both India and Kembe said they were thankful for their teacher. So am I! I’m also thankful for family. After we stuffed ourselves probably, it was time for the highlight of the day – a cake baked in the shape of a turkey. So life-like! After eating, the kids took a walk down to a local park and did a little sledding . . . Southern California style. The next day, we were lazy. This is what happens when you try to nap around children. We had some friends over for left-overs and arm wrestling. On Saturday we had more friends over, this time for pizza making. Jafta took it very seriously and put every single topping available on his pizza. Just your typical pesto pepperoni olives goat cheese artichoke hearts pineapple tomatoes basil jalepeno special. Mark ad Chad decided to climb on the roof to enjoy the sunset. #bromance On Sunday, inspired by the parade, the kids decided to make their own. India was the flag bearer, Kembe was on drums, and Jafta was a baton twirler who was mad that we don’t have a second snare drum. Life is hard. Sunday evening we had some family photos taken by Kristin Rogers. I’ve been a fan of who work on instgram and was thrilled she was available to do our pictures. I used to dread getting our portraits done. When the kids were smaller there were so many meltdowns and attempts to crawl through mud. I have to say, it’s gotten so much better. It was really a relaxing evening. I can’t wait to see how these turned out! In all, we had a really great weekend full of family and friends. It was nice to take a few days off and do nothing but enjoy each other.