Thanksgiving

Our Thankful Tree-11 years of this tradition and the kids still love it. Some of Ivy's preschool crafts and our Thanksgiving craft from last year that I saved also made it on the "thankful door".

Thanksgiving this year was a Goodrich one. We drove to Sandy late morning and spent the whole day. The kids colored, played with dress-ups and blocks, made a movie, and did whatever else they felt like doing. There was a some snow outside so a few of the kids did that for a minute.

Ivy, Brynn, Evie

Eli and Ivy

Dinner was amazing. My contributions were small but I made a green salad and a corn salad. Also banana cream pie. And probably a veggie tray for munching on before dinner.

After dinner was done, Grandma had a special surprise for the kids. She decided to do her Christmas gifting a little different this year and she introduced it that night. She gave all the kids a little package and had them open them. Inside was a $50 gift card to Amazon. The idea was that the kids were going to shop for their own gift (secretly so their siblings wouldn't see what they pick), have the gift shipped to Grandma's house, then she would wrap all the presents and put them under her tree. When we got together for Christmas, each kid would open a present one at a time and the other kids would guess whose present it was. It ended up being really successful and I think April will be doing it again.

Molly, Tiana, Eric, Heidi, Eli, Brynn, Evie, Ivy, Luke, Stockton, Jake

The rest of the night was spent wrestling, watching a Christmas movie, and other random things. We stayed the night since we were heading to Bear Lake in the morning.

Eli and Ivy jumping on Justin, Zoe just relaxing, Gene and Tiana on the couch

zonked out during the movie

The forecast had shown heavy snow all Thanksgiving weekend. I was nervous to drive anywhere. Justin wasn't. We timed it right because we never got snow on any of our drives but we did get snow when we were safely at our destination and having fun. We don't drive through Logan Canyon anymore but we did this time since we were coming from Sandy. It was very picturesque although photos from inside a car looking out a dirty windshield don't really do it justice.

We made it to the cabin and made a quick turn around to go look for a Christmas tree. We went to the same spot we do every year-it was so snowy this year! I think my dad was nervous that we wouldn't make it out. Since we were putting the tree in the loft this year, we got a small tree. We found it fairly quickly and let the kids play for a little while.

Chloe, Josie, Molly

all the kids love having a turn with the saw

Ivy, Jeff, Brynn-right before Jeff landed on Cash 😂

Molly, Lucy, Josie, Tessa

not happy about the white wash

Stockton and Grant

We needed to cram in all the Christmas activities that night since we were going home the next day. Gingerbread houses, Christmas jammies, and late night playing around.

she kept at the gingerbread house longer than anyone

Grant and Stockton

Molly and Chloe

Lucy, Ivy, Josie

This was a game Erin W. came up with...she had seen it somewhere. I think it was called the "tabletop" challenge or something but everyone was trying it.

Molly and Chloe

Molly and Gavin

We weren't going home until after lunch on Saturday so we spent the morning out in the snow. It was such good snow that we couldn't leave without playing. It's always the best time and I'm so grateful for cabin memories.