Thanksgiving Weekend

Here it is Sunday afternoon, and I am making what seems to have become my ritual Sunday post. It has been a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend full of family and fun. To start things off, Mattey and I watched Angels and Demons on Wednesday night. It was an entertaining movie, but not the best I have ever seen. It did keep our attention. Thursday we went to Matt's parent's house to celebrate with his family. Vickie made most of the food, while the Skala kids brought a few things to share as well. I actually made a few of my mom's recipes: pumpkin bars, Polish drumstick and Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie. It was my first time trying them and I think they turned out well! It is special for me to be able to honor her by making the foods I grew up with at the holidays. It was all so yummy. We even brought the food back out for supper for round 2. During the afternoon we watched the Packers beat the Lions :) and the other games that were on. Grandma and Grandpa now have a kitchen set in their toy room, and Kelsey loves it! She spent a lot of her day playing with it.
She also liked pushing the shopping cart around. Nolan and Kelsey played together a lot, too. Nolan gets a little rough with her because I am sure he is used to having to hold his own with his brothers. But Kelsey keeps going back for more, so she obviously doesn't mind it too much! Before we left, Nolan and Kelsey took a bath together, and Kelsey was laughing like crazy! Nolan kept dunking his head, splashing water and being silly, and Kelsey loved it. She even tried dunking her head under the water, too! Those two could be trouble together!

To end the evening, Nate and Diane came over to our house. Natey and Matt watched the Minnesota Gophers basketball game while Diane and I watched the movie My Sister's Keeper. Talk about a tear-jerker! (the movie that is, not the game) I seriously spent half the movie crying. Very emotional storyline!
Friday we braved the crowds and did some Black Friday shopping. We have made it a tradition to go the past few years. We don't get up at 4am, but we make our way out later in the day. This year we found some great deals and I am happy to say we are almost done shopping! What a good feeling! One of our purchases on Friday was outdoor Christmas decorations. Matt decorated the house for me this year, and it looks beautiful! Thanks, Mattey! Next we went to Stacey's house to hang out for a bit. With Nate and Diane in town, it is nice to spend time with everyone. We finally made our way home and put up the Christmas tree, as well as all the inside Christmas decorations. Whoo-hoo!

Dave, Vickie, Diane and Nate stopped over Friday night so the boys could watch more basketball and the girls could chat. What a busy day! Saturday morning we went to my brother, Brian's house. It was our year to be in Minnesota for Thanksgiving, but we still wanted to see each other since we are only an hour away. We had a delicious meal together, complete with my mom's pumpkin bars! I brought along the camera and video camera to get some updated pics of all the kids together, but got too busy playing and talking and didn't take one picture! Bad me! Usually I am the camera lady that everyone groans at because I am always requesting pictures. I guess that means more pictures at Christmas! Saturday night we ordered pizza and rented yet another movie, Four Christmases. We recently bought a Blu-Ray DVD player and we are sure getting some good use out of it lately! The movie was really funny! I highly recommend it during the holiday season. This morning Matt went to school because he had some work that he wanted to finish up before we head back to school tomorrow. Kelsey and I went to church, and she did better this week! We had about a 10 minute fussy time where I wasn't sure if we should stay in or go out. Sometimes she is not being naughty, but just jabbering away. After being super antsy for that short time, she fell asleep. During the week she only takes one nap at Mary's, but she seems to take more than one on the weekends. I guess she is catching up from the week. I tried a new recipe for supper tonight--white chicken chili. It is in the crock pot now. I will let you know how it turns out!
There you have it! Our weekend has been very full, and I am sad to see it go. I love the time I have at home with Kelsey and Matt. I feel so blessed to have them in my life. I am also grateful for our brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends who are so dear to us. We hope your Thanksgiving was just as wonderful!