Thanksgiving '14

I wish I could have gotten around to blogging these memories sooner.  But between sick kiddos and holiday busyness, Its just been hard to set aside the time! 

Getting to see family is always a blessing.  And our Thanksgiving this year was blessed.  My love's parents came for the holiday.  I'm grateful that our families are always so willing to travel to come make memories with their grand-kids. 

Finished product:

This was my "first" Thanksgiving.  First one in my own home, cooking for others.  Cooking is not one of my strengths, so I felt a little unsure of myself.  But I think things turned out just fine.  I didn't ruin the turkey, and everything else was definitely eatable.  Not gourmet, but not bad either.  I was quite happy with how it turned out.  I was grateful for helping hands in the kitchen.  Especially my turkey carvers. :)

But our fun memories didn't stop at yummy food!  We had lots more in store this holiday weekend.  We had tickets for a VERY special activity.  An activity that you needed to wear pajamas for.  I had been on the look out for special pajamas for several weeks.  But I just couldn't find the perfect ones.  So less than a week before, I got the crazy notion to make the perfect pajamas myself!  But I wanted them to be a surprise.  So that meant burning the midnight oil several nights in a row.  Miss EMae's especially took extra thought, time, and work.  I couldn't find fabric so I had to get creative.  I was quite happy with how they turned out though. :)

Their smiles made all the sleep deprivation totally worth while. :)  :)  :)
(That and they've worn them almost every day since!)

 So, on to those special tickets.  We got tickets for The Polar Express.  (My love and I learned about this on our murder-mystery-dinner-train-ride we went on for our anniversary this year.)  But before boarding the train, we had one more present.  (These kids are spoiled.  I totally admit it.)  Perfect hats to match their perfect pajamas.  :)  (I actually bought these hats back in September and have been saving them.)

The train!

It was fun.  But . . . not gonna lie.  A few tears just seem to always be part of life.  Can't quite put my finger on why that is, but it is what it is, and part of the memory. 
Shortcake was QUITE upset when the conductor came a long and punched a hole in her ticket!  (The nerve of some people!)  ;)

But it wasn't just her.  All three of my children seem to be very in tune with their emotions.  Big sisters each had a few tears of their own.  One felt embarrassed that she didn't know what she was going to ask Santa for.  The other was quite sad that her hot chocolate was too hot to drink.  But as always, we work though it.

Part of the train ride included story time, and they read the original Polar Express.  The movie is cute and all, but if you haven't already, you really gotta see the book it came from.  (Those hats make the girls easy to find in a crowd.)

  

Just like in the book, the train went to "the North Pole."  It was cute and all.  But . . . thanks to the incredible visuals the film industry is able to create . . . (and an unavoidable lack of snow) to older and wiser children, it was obvious we just hadn't quite really made it all the way north.  :)  No one complained or anything.  Just an observation to note. 

"Santa" boarded the train and gave each of the children, "the first gift of Christmas."  It was a beautiful silver bell just like in the story.  It even had "Polar Express 2014" engraved on it!  But I'm not one for sugar coating it so I'm not gonna lie here either.  One of my girls commented to me on the quality of his beard.  And I'm afraid I had to agree with her.  Thanks to my own family's connection to Christmas, my personal santa standards are pretty high.  Oh how I wish my girls could see "my" Santa. 

Tears and beard aside, it was still a fun memory.  Riding a night time Christmas train in our pajamas with Grandma and Grandpa. 

But much to our surprise, this holiday still had another fun surprise in store.  

SNOW!  

We don't get a whole lot of snow where we live.  Once a winter usually.  And it doesn't stay very long.  But we woke up Saturday morning to not just a dusting, but 3 inches!  I was so happy for my kids.  Any opportunity to play in the snow is a special treat. 

Finished off a fun day with a cozy story time with Grandma and Grandpa.

 

Unfortunately, fun visits always mean goodbyes.   Just before they had to leave, we took pictures of the girls in the beautiful new Christmas dresses Grandma and Grandpa gave them. 

So grateful for family.  Grateful for such a nice visit.  And I know Grandma and Grandpa would join me in saying, I'm grateful for the JOY these 3 little girls bring to life.