thanksgiving thankfulness

One of the main things I was thankful for this thanksgiving (aside from a beautiful, healthily baby girl) was that we had a house full of some of the coolest people on earth.

The New York Eyre's came up for the whole weekend and boy howdy (as Kristi says) did we have a great time. Tal even brought his new girlfriend Anita up....she was delightful and funny and fit right in. We've been joking with Tal about if she's real or not since he's so stealth about his dating life lately. I've been calling her "Bianca" from Lars and the Real girl and was beginning to wonder if she was really real or not after not so much as getting a name out of Tal. So, I was DYING of laughter when Tal walked in with her slung over his 6'7" shoulder. He sat her down on the couch and she acted like a perfect mannequin for a good 8 minutes. She was so believable that the kids were a little freaked out. We were all in stitches before he made her come to life and we were able to actually meet her. Man, she has guts to pull that one off. (you're probably not following this too well if you haven't seen Lars and the Real girl....it's really good, you should see it).

My mom got us all ready for Thanksgiving (all the shopping and planning and cleaning....that woman never stops!). She was able to hang out with us and witness the "Bianca/Anita Show" before she flew out early Thanksgiving morning. Sadly her flight was seriously delayed and she missed Thanksgiving dinner at my aunts house. That news nearly made me cry, no one deserves more a nice hot thanksgiving dinner that she didn't have to make. They saved her a big plate and of course, she didn't complain....my saintly mom.

Anyway, everyone took on a food assignment and our kitchen was BUSY! It was so nice to not have to do much.

And boy, was I thankful for that island. What did we ever do without it?

Charlie and Hazel loved having McKay and baby Lyla around. We spent a lot of the morning filling up our "thankful tree" (you can see it on the wall behind these kids). Here are some of the things the kids were thankful for:
Hazel: my bed, my little baby emmeline, my bed, charlie, markers, glue, dress ups, Jesus
Charlie: little baby emmeline, airplanes, bulldozers, helicopters, Santa clause

After stuffing ourselves with good food we went on our traditional Thanksgiving hike through the cemetery and up a hill to where you can see all of Boston and even out to the beach on a good day. It was beautiful and quite an adventure. It felt so good to get out after being inside for so long with little Emmeline.

The Young Women in our ward did a babysitting fundraiser that Saturday so we were able to go to a fancy breakfast with out any screaming toddlers. It was heaven. Lyla and Emmeline even slept peacefully through breakfast. These people are so fun to talk to!

We also took a trip up to Newburyport to see Eva and family, went to see Bolt in 3-d (hence the cool glasses) and went disco bowling.

One of the best weekends I've had in a long time. How can you go wrong with this crew? Man I love them.