A Weekend Of Thanksgiving

Kendall & Grandma checking out a new toy that she and grandpa gave her for Christmas.

Justin & Grandpa

Kendall "conveniently" fell asleep here because she wanted

to sleep with mom!

Mom asking Keith for a favor. Notice his concerned

expression...he isn't used to physical touch from his mother

in law!! :-) He knows something is up...

Mom made a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner and it was

delicious. Here, we are just sitting down to eat.

Kendall and Keith in the hammock after playing some

soccer.

Grandma and Kendall playing soccer. Go,

mom! They played hard as we watched a

storm (cold front) roll in. Windy, cloudy, but

thankfully, nothing severe.
Keith and Daddy in the hammock...

Grandpa re-introduced Justin to backgammon. They played

several games. Justin says he won, but I didn't confirm with

Riad. Either way, they both had a blast playing.

Next, on to Louisville. Keith and his dad in the hotel room

watching Florida State kick Florida's BOOTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, it was fun to see :)

Tristan with his grandpa and great-grandpa.

Justin and Grandpa. I have a photo similar when Justin was

a baby, except then, his whole body was the size of his head in

this photo! They grow too fast!

Brother and Sister ;-)

Kendall reading to Tristan. She loved meeting him.

Playing Mad Gab. Someone peed their pants, again. Some-

one who can't take laughter without planning ahead... it was

fun and somehow we get very tickled every time. Sarah

is REALLY good at this game!!

A tired crew after everyone left. Though everyone is in

grandma and grandpa's bed, we didn't all sleep in one bed.

And, so here you have a pictorial summary of our whirl-wind weekend that was Thanksgiving weekend. It was fun. We got to see lots of family! We got to meet Melissa and Tristan...Kendall would've velcro-ed Tristan to her lap if she could have :)

Our drive to Tennessee was (thankfully) uneventful. We got in around 6:30 Wednesday evening, greeted with a delicious Chili Bar...chili, lettuce, cheese, sour cream, home made guacamole salad, celery, homemade hummus, crackers, tortillas, and....fresh, homemade BANANA PUDDING. Mom and Riad out did themselves. We got a good nights sleep and woke up to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade while preparing the Thanksgiving feast. Riad and Keith took the kids to the park where they played football, soccer and chased each other in the playground. They came home sweaty and ready for food! Dinner was great. We watched the new Karate Kid movie that evening after some backyard play/watching a storm roll in with high winds and played board games.

We shopped, went bowling and ate leftover turkey Friday, before heading to the crazy zone that is the Woolery side of the family on Saturday morning. The three hour drive to Louisville was uneventful (and pretty) and we got to our hotel just in time to see Ohio State wrap up their win and start the FSU/Florida game. Kent and Marsha were there and Pam, Dave, Sarah, Melissa and Tristan came with pizza a bit later. Jared stayed back at Pam and Dave's not feeling well and Tom was hunting in Iowa, but we sure enjoyed those we got to see. I think the first thing after saying hello was getting thrown to the bed and pinned down by the boys...made me feel welcome! The kids loved playing with Tristan. He was so cute and fun to watch and strangely, didn't feel freaked out by all the weirdo's around...I mean all the family around ;) After a lively evening of pizza, an FSU victory, an NC State loss (yahooooooo), games, laughter, hot tubbing, we turned in for the night ready for our L-O-N-G drive home Sunday.

That drive proved to be not-so-bad. After a lovely breakfast at the hotel with Keith's parents, we hit the road...determined to avoid W. Va and Va- which map quest wanted us to take. We traveled 64 East, then 75 South (risky, but worked out fine), then got on 40 to home. We had no slow downs til east of Greensboro where we witnessed a three car pileup three cars ahead of us, followed by another minor accident a mile or so beyond that, with some slow moving traffic heading into he 85-40 split. After that, we were in good shape and arrived at 8-ish last night.

Today, Keith and I rejoined the world of body pump and were punished by Sue, my favorite teacher- there's nothing like her on a Monday morning. I then made no less than 16 trips up and down two flights of stairs between the attic and first floor, bringing down decorations for Christmas. We have most indoor decor out and one tree up and decorated with one more to go.

In between those 16 trips up and down the stairs, I did lots of laundry and some dishes, as well as a trip to music school for guitar and cooking a bit of dinner.

It was a great weekend, a great day back home and a great start to the Christmas season! The only thing to make this weekend better would've been to see the Barker side of the family too and to have my gram join us!