Thanksgiving Weekend

I'm quite behind on my blog, but we have been extremely busy around here lately. Brad's grandma is in her last stages on life, so things have been different, strange, and busy every night.
Even though we are all sad about Grandma, our Thanksgiving weekend was packed full of food, family, and fun! The week leading up to Thanksgiving was pretty low-key, which was nice. We really didn't do a whole lot, except make food for Thursday's meals. On Thursday, we had a nice brunch with the DeLanges and Williams. We had Honey Baked ham and turkey, overnight omelet, cheesy hashbrowns, warm apples, sweet potatoes, jello, apple pie and cookies. Everything was delicious!!! Dad D. talked about Thanksgiving and read Abraham Lincoln's "Declaration of Thanksgiving" before we ate. It's amazing how great of a writer/speaker Lincoln was and how his priorities were so godly. The brunch was a nice start to our day. We sat around for a couple hours, just relaxing, looking at store ads, and watching football before we headed off to my parent's house for an afternoon dinner. My mom had a turkey, stuffing, jello, corn, rolls, cheesy carrots, salad, pies, and pumpkin cheesecake. Everything tasted great even though I didn't eat a whole lot because I was still stuffed from earlier. Bailey ended up coming with us to play with Halle, so we didn't see them hardly at all. We all played the Wii and watched "Elf". My cousin, Lauren, was in town from college. It was nice to see her too.

Parker and Halle watching tv in their baskets!Brunch at the DeLange'sTable

Playing the Wii at my parent's house- my grandma even played!

Halle and Me

Me, Mom, Allyson

Halle and Bailey getting ready to watch "Elf"

Parker looking sweet even though he has stains on his shirtFriday started at 5:00am for me. I was up and getting ready to stand in line at Target when they opened at 6am. My mom and sister met up with me right as I was walking into the store. We got everything we wanted to get, which was nice. We always go Black Friday shopping, so we are used to the crowds. There's something exhilarating about standing in lines and fighting crowds to get a good deal. I will never forget the year Brad went with us to get a camera at Circuit City. It was so jam packed in the store no one could move. Brad ended up getting everything he wanted while we went over to Target. Even though it was crazy, it was so fun!

I got the kids a few specific things they wanted for Christmas at Target. We then headed to Old Navy and then to Tim Horton's for a quick breakfast snack. We usually always go out of town to do our "mall" shopping, so we headed down to Lakeside (in Utica-about 1 hour away). We shopped at the mall for a couple hours, ate at Panera Bread for lunch, and stopped at Marshall's before heading home. By 4pm we were exhausted!!!

Friday evening Brad's Uncle Chip, Aunt Sharon, Taylor, Nathan, and Lisa all came over to spend the night. They live in Grand Rapids, MI (which is about 2 hours away). The guys all played Acquire, which is a game about investing in stock and selling companies. I have never played it, so I really don't know much more about it than that. The girls all talked and went to bed early.

Saturday all the girls went shopping at Great Lakes Crossing. Aunt Mindy went with us too. While we were shopping, the guys all played Marshmallow War with marshmallow guns made out of piping, and shot their real guns at clay pigeons.

Saturday evening we headed up to Bronner's Christmas Store in Frankenmuth with my family. Bronner's is the World's Largest Christmas Store- I would believe it!! It is huge and has absolutley everything Christmas there is.We always go there every year and get an ornament for the tree for that year. Usually we try to pick one that represents something from the past year. This year Brad got an ornament that looks like tool belt with tools in it because he started a remodeling company, I got a teacher ornament, even though I'm just a sub, Parker got a football ornament because he is totally infatuated with football, and Halle got a rainbow because she thought it was pretty. We went back to my parents and had pizza and watched "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" which is hilarious!On the way to Bronner's

Inside the store

Sunday we had church in the morning and then Scott, Al, Brad and I all went and saw "Australia". It is so good. I would definitely recommend it! It is a little long, but you don't realize it because you are so engrossed in the story. Definitely a Must-See!!!

Also, a couple times this weekend the kids all went out and got pulled around on sleds by the tractor. They had so much fun! Parker rode with the tractor driver and they hooked up 2 sleds for the kids. They had fun falling off, doing tricks, etc. I didn't go out this time, but maybe sometime later this winter I will get on and try it!

Corey, Bailey and Halle
The girls stayed on, but Chad and Corey kept falling off!

That was our weekend! Absolutely PACKED!!!! And to add on top of that, we got LOTS of snow all weekend long. Sunday night we got 6-8 inches!!!!

We were for sure planning on having a "snow day" on Monday, but even though over 200 schools closed, Lapeer didn't, so Jess and Halle had school. We were mad!!! We were hoping for a day to recoupe from our weekend.

Brad's grandma's health has deteriorated so quickly this week that it is only a matter of time now. We have been watching Chad, Corey, and Bailey every night this week, as Brad's mom and aunt want to be with their mom as much as possible. We haven't even got any Christmas decorations up yet and have no clue if we will ever get them up. Oh well. It's not that important considering the circumstances.