Smith Family: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving started early this year... about 2:30am to be exact. You see, I bought a 22lb turkey that needed to be ready by noon! Oh my!

But, let me tell you this is the BEST way to do Thanksgiving! I got up at 2:30am, stuffed the bird, put it in the oven (having left myself a note to make sure the oven was on)... crawled back in bed by 3am... and woke up at about 7:30am to the smell of turkey cooking. What a lovely greeting on an Thanksgiving morning!

We had coffee cake and cheese sticks for breakfast (so as not to ruin our appetites), then made Thanksgiving Turkey Hands (see below), watched the parade, put the finishing touches on Thanksgiving dinner and had our wonderful friends Matt and Charity over for a noon meal.

We had a great time together. God has certainly blessed us with great friends. What a blessing to be able to share a delicious meal together and praise the Lord for He is good, no matter our circumstances.

We were finished with dinner by 2pm... put away the food... and took good 'turkey induced' naps. Got up, watched some football, re-loaded the dishwasher, watched more football, thought about hand washing some dished- put that off for a bit longer, fed kids left-overs, played with kids, packed for our trip, then handwashed the dishes from the morning. What a RELAXING day. I think we found a new tradition of Thanksgiving at NOON! What a great day.

The Adult Table. (We sat Carson at the end... out of reach of the table cloth... but still close enough in throwing distance of Charity... oops...)

The turkey is under all those towels... came out perfect at 10:30am

All the food was prep-ed on Tuesday or Wednesday... so Thursday was super easy! I am very thankful for all I learned while working at Making Memories Catering in Newnan, GA.

Thanksgiving Turkey Hands. We asked the kids what they were thankful for and wrote it on their hands. This is Mommy and Natalie. Natalie is thankful for broccoli and hairbands. Carson (the little red one) is thankful for 'dah-dy'

Daddy and J.D. hands. J.D. is thankful for God making us and for coloring.

Now onto the Thanksgiving Day Adventure. We decided to go to Estes Park for the Catch the Glow Celebration. Little did we know that 1/2 the state was also headed there! But, it was fun. We left Colorado Springs around 11am... got to Estes Park by 2:30pm...

By 2:30pm, people had begun claiming their place along the road for the Light Parade at 5:30pm. Hmm... we forgot chairs.... Hmm... we are not going to worry about this... let's go to Rocky Mountain National Park....

So, we did. And, we are so GLAD. It was beautiful. When we first drove in there were cars parked by the side of the road... b/c there was a herd of Elk in the field (pictures yet to be downloaded from the other camera- check back next month, hee, hee).

We parked, got the kids out of the car, put on jackets, hats, gloves, boots (for the umpteenth time that day)... and let the kids watch the elk. We heard them call to each other. We watched one nurse. We watched the 'king' of them bully around some lesser males. It was fascinating.

Then, we were off to drive up to Bear Lake. I was envisioning seeing the lake at the mountain top. Oops. It is November in Colorado. What was I thinking. The lake was buried under snow and ice. But, the kids did get out (again, the coat, mitten, hat, boot routine) and we walked up to the lake and they went out on the ice with Daddy. Of course I stayed on solid ground (someone has to be able to call for help in case the ice cracks...).

We made it back into town in time to get into all our snow gear again... and find a spot for the parade. All the town's emergency vehicles were decked out, then followed by different businesses, etc that had made floats, some horses, and such. It was grand. The kids loved it.

Then, we got back to the car, out of all the winter gear, and started the 40 minute drive to Boulder (that is if there is no snow and the road are clear...). So, 1.5 hours later, we arrived at our hotel, tired, cold and grumpy. We tucked kiddos in bed and went to sleep!

The next day (Saturday), we explored Pearl Street in Boulder. How fun! Great shops, great walking mall area for the kids to run. And, Santa was there!. Natalie saw him and rushed and gave him the biggest and longest hug! She is the perfect age for Santa! What innocence on display.

Boulder was great. And, we will look forward to going back and seeing more of it. There are some fun tours in the town that we will be able to do when kids are older (like the Celestial Seasonings...tea... tour... yes, Mom, we can go!) We will go back and hike and climb. And, to shop! It looks like a fun place to do more exploring.