Turkey Trouble

We have so much to be thankful for and November is a great reminder to count our many blessings.

First, we are so grateful for our two little girls. Isabelle and Olivia are both healthy, smart and sweet girls and Ben and I are not sure what to do with ourselves whenever we find a quiet moment alone. (Fortunately that rarely seems to happen.) Both girls performed a festive dance in their dance classes that they had worked on for weeks prior to the holiday. Isabelle performed the Turkey Tango in jazz style and Olivia did the Turkey Wobble in 2-year old ballet style. I am their mother, so I cannot give an unbiased opinion, but they were both stars. They loved dancing for all of the parents to see and Isabelle even skipped school one day to attend Olivia's dancing debut.

We are also thankful for our extended family and living in a day and age where traveling and communication is so simple. We were fortunate enough to share the Thanksgiving holiday with ALL of the Christensen family this year and we had fun from sun up to sun down.

We celebrated an early surprise birthday party for Max that Isabelle was thrilled to plan. We met for lunch with balloons, presents and an 8 candle and then made our way over to The Woodlands Ice Rink where we skated in the warmest skating rink ever. It was mid-80's outside and the ice was literally melting as we skated. The kids had so much fun trying to stay on their feet and got better and better with every lap.

Thanksgiving morning we began the festivities with the annual Turkey Trot and again were drenched in sweat with a warm run. We all got cleaned up for family pictures and then enjoyed a yummy turkey dinner with all the trimmings made by Grammie. Once we finished all of the dishes and a piece of pumpkin pie, it was time to kick off the Christmas holiday and all 4 of the grandkids went to bed with brand new holiday jammies from Grammie and Grandpa. The rest of us raced through the newspaper and quickly made a Black Friday game plan. Alee, Tara, my mom and I hit Target and Walmart like professionals and were in and out with a heafty amount of money spent in a matter of minutes. We then made good on our yearly promise and woke little Isabelle for round two of shopping at 5:00am. Isabelle almost jumped literally out of bed and before we had even left the garage said This is the best day ever.

We spent the rest of the weekend going to the movies, sleeping in, eating leftovers and enjoying our time together. The warm Texas weather reminded us even more how much we have to be grateful for and I pray that we can keep the spirit of Thanksgiving in our hearts everyday until next November.