Thanksgiving Day

Our Thanksgiving meal was small but full of love and yummy food! The church where I work gave each preschool employee a smoked turkey. A friend gave us a Thanksgiving meal in a basket so we used a few things in it, along with the sides that I made. 

The girls may have started a new Thanksgiving tradition. While waiting for dinner to be ready, they made cards for each family member. When we sat down to eat, we read our love notes that showed how thankful we are for one another. 

Our First Family Camping Trip

We decided at the last minute to check out Jellystone Park for some family camping the week of Thanksgiving. The park was only about an hour away and it had cabins, running water, a full kitchen and Wifi. Sounded like a great place! The weather was perfect and we found lots to do during our four day stay. 

A hay ride around the park. 

The kids loved meeting the Yogi Bear characters. We met Boo Boo bear the first day.

The human maze was a big hit with the kids. The girls were great at figuring out where the entrance and exits were. 

I took the little ones for a nap one afternoon while Daddy and Karis, hiked, played paintball, bounced in the bounce houses and played horse shoe.

We took a night time ride on a vintage fire truck where we met Yogi Bear. 

Kyle was a bit frightened by the large bear. He would only take a picture if Daddy was there to protect him. 

The kids loved just hanging out in the cabin. The girls stayed upstairs in the loft. 

Daddy and Kyle playing cars. 

Coloring by the fire.

Our porch

There was a playground.

And plenty of space to run around.



I made the kids a journal where they wrote every day about the weather, what they did, and what was their favorite activities.

A train ride. 

We spent a lot of time in the mess hall coloring, playing ping pong and dancing on the stage. The kids learned all about Yogi Bear during our stay. We even found a couple of old TV episodes on the iPad for the kids to watch. 

S'mores!

The campsite had activities throughout the day. We went to craft time where the kids made paper turkeys and wrote what they are thankful for. 

Big kid on a big tractor. 

Playing on the vintage fire truck. 

We definitely made lots of memories on our trip!

PreK Thanksgiving Feast

I got to celebrate Thanksgiving with Kyle at school. We at a yummy feast together in the morning. 

 

God has blessed us with so much and I pray that we would always give thanks to Him not only in this season, but all throughout the year!

Thanksgiving with the Hong Family

We woke up Thanksgiving day and packed into the car. We were headed to California!

We arrived at Julie's house and settled in a little bit before heading to the Hong Thanksgiving dinner and family reunion. This year, our relatives from Northern California, Washington, New York and Pennsylvania joined us.

Derek shared a brief Thanksgiving message with everyone.

The food was delicious!

Our gathering was also to celebrate Auntie's 80th birthday.

Kyle devoured an adult-size piece of cake. It was so quick and we were both too distracted to stop him in time. He paid for it later in the middle of the night as most of the cake came back up.

The night ran long as we went through a slide show and reminisced about the old days. Kyle didn't make it to the end. 

Although many of our aunts and uncles have gone on to heaven, it's great that we can still gather together as a family (60+ people). It's always good to catch up with everyone and to hear about what they are doing. We sure have missed celebrating every year with them and were thankful we could do it this year.

Thanksgiving Day

I am thankful for each day I get to spend with my family and Thanksgiving day was no different. We spent the day with Aunt Stephanie's family in Combine, TX. I loved watching my kids run around and play in the big backyard. They fed the neighbor's horse, raced each other, made a dirt-leaves-twig salad, played with a box and washers, and took the family's two boxers for a walk. 

There was plenty of food, football games and good conversation. We had smoked and fried turkey. Karis only like the fried one, Makena only liked the smoked one and Kyle knew no different and may have preferred the ham over both. The sweet potato mash was definitely their favorite -- "Mom, is this dessert?" "Mom, can we have this at home??" (the sweet potatoes I make for them are not drenched in brown sugar, butter and marshmallows!). 

 

Kyle declared no more pictures of him!

It was 7 o'clock and the girls were still going strong, but it was time to take our little mister home. He didn't take a nap on this action-filled day. We thought for sure he'd fall asleep before we pulled out of the driveway, but he stayed awake for the hour drive home -- singing "Jingle bong, jingle bong ... mumble mumble ... hey!" to the tune of Jingle Bells. It was a sweet end to our Thanksgiving day and the start of the Christmas season!