We arrived home late Tuesday night from our third annual Thanksgiving trek to Southern Utah to spend the holiday with Matt's parents, his sister Leslie, brother Todd, and their families. Now that the bags are unpacked and the kids have almost returned to their normal sleep schedules, here are the things from our trip that I am most thankful for:
1) The shiny new Jet Blue Terminal 5 at JFK.
It was sparkly and clean, the security lines were aplenty, it had a full size Borders bookstore and a great selection of restaurants, many of which offered very cool touch screen ordering. It made having to arrive at the airport at an ungodly hour of the morning a bit more bearable.
I was not thankful that I neglected to ask if there were any open seats on our flight so that I could bring Claire's car seat on board. She sleeps much better during travel when restrained. I assumed that all flights would be full on the day before Thanksgiving, but that was not the case (thanks to the horrible economy, I'm sure). Sadly I did not make this realization until after I gate-checked the car seat. We made up for it on the return flight though, when we were able to get two extra seats, one for Claire's car seat and one for Ella to sprawl out on and sleep for over two hours. Yes, my gratitude abounded on that particular flight.
And I can't forget to express my thanks for DirecTV, which kept me occupied on the long flights and allowed me to watch five straight hours of The Real Housewives of Orange County. I have now had more than my fill until next year's trip.
2) My wonderful mother-in-law.
She spent hours making homemade gingerbread, bought all the Christmas candy she could find, whipped up batch after batch of royal icing (pictured in piping bags above), and allowed her children and grandchildren to make a huge mess in her home so that we could all build our traditional gingerbread houses, something I look forward to all year long.
She cooked meals, made sandwiches, and let my little family take over her master bedroom for a week.
And if that wasn't enough, she is a huge fan of the Twilight series, and on Thanksgiving day when she overheard Leslie talking about the Twilight themed birthday party she recently had for her thirteen-year-old daughter, she decided right then and there that we would have a Twilight Thanksgiving table. Now tell me, is your mother-in-law this much fun?
3) Good food, and lots of it.
In-N-Out Burger and Cafe Rio have become just as much a Thanksgiving tradition as the turkey dinner for me. Matt and I managed to hit both of them twice on this trip. By the way, that's the New York New York hotel & casino in Las Vegas in the background of the photo, just in case you were confused. There are no palm trees or In-N-Out restaurants in New York City. Trust me, I've looked.
And as if I hadn't already consumed enough calories, knowing that Matt and I are cupcake connoisseurs (or more accurately, that we like to find the best cupcake places in NYC and stuff our faces), Todd brought a dozen of the most delicious and elaborate cupcakes from his favorite cupcake shop in Las Vegas to see what we thought of them. We had an official cupcake tasting, with Todd acting as master of ceremonies and carefully slicing each cupcake into eighths so that everybody could taste each flavor. If you are ever in Las Vegas, make sure to stop by and try out the Lemonberry, Pink Champagne, and Southern Belle (red velvet), my three favorite flavors.
4) Family. More specifically, cousins.
Ella and Claire are lucky enough to have thirteen of the best cousins around. However, because Ella's memory of anything that happened more than six months ago is fuzzy at best, before this trip she thought that she only had four cousins who lived in New Jersey, the ones she sees on a semi-regular basis. It took her a while to wrap her head around the idea that the other six kids staying at Grandma and Grandpa's house were also her cousins, but she eventually caught on. (In case you are doing the math, there are three other cousins who are living the high life in Switzerland, spending weekends traipsing all over Europe.) She loved playing cars with Tanner and plotting with him ways to sneak gingerbread house candy off the table and into their mouths. Although Adam and Katie are a little older, they still indulged Ella's request to form a marching band and sing "Jingle Bells" all over the house. Britney and Courtney, the teenagers, were big helpers with both Ella and Claire, and made Ella's day one afternoon when they took her on a little walk to the nearby playground. And baby Preston did what he does best: looked adorable.
Yes, there was truly much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving...
Ella patiently waits for Thanksgiving dinner to be served, a good fifteen minutes before anybody else made it to the table. Funny, considering she only ended up eating butter and bread.
Claire and Matthew.
Watching Grandma ice the graham cracker houses, or waiting to pop a piece of candy in her mouth. You decide.
The nativity (and Christmas lights in the background) at the St. George temple.
Hugs for Tanner.