Thanksgiving weekend and our 'Chrisam tree'

This year for us, Thanksgiving was a little different. We were family-less. Let me explain...this summer we decided to go to Alabama for Thanksgiving instead of at Christmas time. Not only would we have to buy one less ticket at Thanksgiving time, but all of Ben's family had decided to not get together for Christmas this year, so we thought it was a great plan. So because of that, most of my siblings made plans with their in-laws or others. And with all the dysfunction that is going on in my family right now, and with my dad having to stay in Alaska through the weekend, we thought it was a great plan for Thanksgiving. Anyway...Ben's teacher put a wrench in our plans when she told him at the beginning of the semester that he couldn't miss any school that week. So we were stuck in Spokane and we were family-less. We decided it would be kind of nice to just spend the day with the three of us at home and just hang out all day. I would attempt to cook a nice Thanksgiving meal. And for those of you who know me well, know that I don't cook. But I was looking forward to the challenge! :) We had a lot of our great friends invite us over, which was so nice, but we declined them all. Well, Thursday morning rolls around, Ben is off to the store to buy our food. (no, we hadn't even gone grocery shopping yet!) The Enloe's, our good friends, and Ben's boss, had traded some Playoff tickets to the Spokane Shock for some of my dad's crab. So they had some of my dads crab that they were cooking up for their Thanksgiving meal at their house, and insisted that we join them. Well, because we just love them (and 15 phone calls later) we decided to join them for Thanksgiving! I stole these pictures off her blog....Thanks Sharlene!

At first I felt really bad for crashing their family Thanksgiving...all of Eric's family was in town! But it wasn't long after we got there that we felt right at home and a part of the family! We even went back up on Friday night for Mexican food with the family. (because we could never miss a Mexican meal at the Enloe's!) :) And Saturday night was Hayden's baptism and we went with them to the family dinner after that as well!!! It was so nice having a 'family' for Thanksgiving! :) Thank you Enloe family for adopting us for the weekend!

While we were family-less on Thanksgiving day, the day before Thanksgiving, we decided last-minute to head to my grandparents house for the day! My grandpa had a stroke a few years ago and isn't able to do much anymore. But growing up, it was always my grandpa who had the HUGE Thanksgiving feast, and we would all get together, with my aunts and uncles and cousins. He can't really handle visitors much anymore, so we were just there for a few hours, long enough to eat and say hi and be on our way! It was really funny, because like 15 minutes after we got there, he had my grandma put him in his wheel chair, and wheel him to the dining room table where he started saying a prayer. (he kind of does some random stuff since the Stroke) but we all went with it. And in the prayer, he blessed us that we would have a safe trip home and then when he was done with the prayer, he said, 'ok, bye guys!' like he was already for us to leave. Needless to say, we ate and left in a hurry! But he absolutely loves Tucker and Tucker loves him. Its really cute! We did get to see my aunt and uncle and cousins for a few hours and that was wonderful! We absolutely love them!

me, my mom & my grandma

'Oh Chrisam Tree, O Chrisam Tree...'

Tucker has been very excited about our Christmas tree this year, and it has been so much fun having him help us with everything. Every morning when he wakes up and every afternoon after his nap, the first thing he wants to do is go look at the 'Chrisam tree'! He says Christmas like 'Chrisam'. So everything is 'Chrisam this' or 'Chrisam that'. I kind of don't want him to learn how to say it the right way because it is so cute! He helped us pick it out, and put it up (kind of) and decorate it! (and broke about 15 bulbs and all of the candy canes in the process) :) But its been so much fun! Having a little one around makes the holidays so much better! I can't wait for it to just keep getting better and better for him!

Here, Tucker is telling him where to hang an ornament...

After Tucker discovered the candy canes, this is what he did most of the night:

And the finished product:

I love the smell in our house now that we have our Christmas tree up, its like Christmas can officially begin now! I love this time of year to reflect and realize just how lucky and THANKFUL I am for my wonderful husband and my little family!

Merry Chrisam Everyone!