This was our first Minnesota Thanksgiving. Our first Thanksgiving at our home. It was important to us that we start traditions of our own.....here. We need traditions that we can look forward to through the holiday season. Traditions that are ours and ours alone.
Tradition Number 1: Trip to space and playing in the basement.
Poor Granddaddy had to get up at 3am on Thanksgiving morning to catch a flight to MN. As soon as he walked in the door, he had to take another "flight" to the moon and Mars. Ga-Ga was able to come down on Tuesday and spend a few more days playing in the basement before Thanksgiving. What would I have done without her help getting all the food ready?
Tradition #2: Thanksgiving cookin' and eatin' at our house.
Ga-Ga and I spent most of the day on Wednesday cooking and getting ready for Thanksgiving. You have no idea how hard it is to find "greens" and "ham hock" in MN. However, I enjoyed hearing Ga-Ga ask the store clerks. It was so nice to not be the only one getting picked on about their accent. I think from now on I am going to take Granddaddy's approach and ask back, "What accent"?
This year, we had our table full. I was so afraid that it would have been empty with just the four of us. God provided (not only a dining room table) but a way for my parents and Wade's cousins to get here. They live in St. Paul while Alicia is in vet school. They are kind enough to come and spend time with my munchkins even though they are newlyweds and kid-less.
Tradition #3: Fire in the fireplace.
It may have taken 6 paper grocery bags and an untold number of catalogs, but my persistent husband was able to make the wet logs into a warm blazing fire. It made the house seem even more homey than usual.
Tradition #4: Nickelodeon Universe
We took the kids, on Thanksgiving evening, to ride the rides at the MOA. There wasn't anyone there. It was so nice to let them ride until their hearts content. Of course, Ga-Ga and Granddaddy were able to ride as well.
Tradition #5: Cutting down the Christmas Tree.
On Friday we all loaded up and headed out to find the perfect Christmas tree. We drove to "Z's Trees", a local tree farm. Here we rode a wagon pulled by a tractor out into the tree farm and then we were on our own to find the perfect tree. Luckily the weather was really nice (30s) and sunny.
However, they didn't provide someone to cut it down with a chainsaw as the website suggested. Nope, they dropped you off in no mans land with a hand saw.
But, we were successful with Granddaddy, Wade, and the kids' hard work.
Sam really got into the whole cutting a tree down thing. He wanted to cut "moe" trees down. Just so you know, the hand saw had a cover on the blade....I wasn't letting him run around with a sharp blade in his arms :)
Our perfect Christmas tree with the perfect people around it.
Tradition #6: Decorating the Christmas Tree
This is what happens when you cut down your own Christmas tree......
....you find a birds nest in it!!
The final product.....
Tradition #7: Conquering the Edinborough Park
On Saturday we took the kids, Ga-Ga, and Granddaddy to the Edinborough Park. As you can see, it has a rather large indoor play structure.
Here is proof that both Granddaddy and Ga-Ga conquered it with Maddie. I won't tell you that Ga-Ga didn't go down the fastest slide, but she did make it all the way to the top.
Tradition #8: Snow
Okay, so this tradition I can't really control. However, it worked out really well for this year.
1 comment:
How could you have missed out on Underoos?! You're not THAT much younger than me- -my sister had them. They were underwear and camisole-type undershirts that looked like different characters. (They had boy versions too- -don't quite remember what they were like- -maybe underwear and an undershirt.) My Wonder Woman ones looked like Wonder Woman's outfit. And my sister had R2D2 ones. Man- -now I'm gonna have to see if I can find an old picture at my parents of us in them. Anybody else know about Underoos?
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