This year for Thanksgiving we got to go down to California to visit my sister Stephanie, her husband Marc and my new nephew Karsten!! We always love getting to see them and it was especially fun to meet baby Karsten, who is exactly 5 months younger than Jimmie. (Happy 1 month birthday today, Karsten!! We miss you!)
It was a blast! Before we went, we did start on the Christmas decor so that it would be Christmas-y when we got back. This will be our first Christmas on our own, Jimmie's first Christmas, and therefore, our first Christmas tree. Jimmie thinks it's pretty cool!! Nala's been good about it too :)
(Our floating ornaments. Not the best shot. It looks cool during the day and without the blinds shut. But you get the idea)
And of course, we had to do some Christmas crafting :)
Jimmie's also become very independent. We can officially leave him sitting and playing with toys confidently for an extended period of time. Obviously we still play with him and watch him ;)
Before we drove down to California, I did some Thanksgiving desserts to bring by making my Grandma Foulk's famous chocolate turtles. I've been nervous to attempt them before since they're such a big holiday tradition and easily messed up. It requires a lot of caramel, and I was so pleased when I actually made caramel for the first time...and did a good job!
Some of the turtles pre-chocolate. They turned out delicious, I think!
Aunt Meg came down from Idaho and got here late Monday night to drive down to California with us. We were so glad she was able to come! Jimmie was especially happy to see his aunt :)
The, typically, 9.5ish hour drive to Burbank went pretty smoothly. We didn't have to stop much and Jimmie did a lot of sleeping. It was awesome. We made it to Steph's in 11 hours.
Passing Vegas
It was nice to be able to just relax with family
Here's the Karsten man!! I'd already forgotten how little newborns are! He is such a sweet little guy!
He even started taking a pacifier a bit more while we were there! Poor Karsten is a little colic-y, which just breaks your heart. But when he is happy, he is so funny, sweet, and loving. Love this kid.
Jimmie and Karsten's interactions were so funny. So glad these cousins were able to meet. Now we just need Lucy in the group! (Luuuuucy, where aaaare you?)
"Who is this kid, Mom?"
"Keep your hand over there man!"
"No, wait... I'll take that mitten."
"Jimmie, these are MY mittens!"
"See? They've got dinosaurs"
"Sweet! I think I'll borrow them then!"
So we decided to give Jimmie some mittens of his own so he couldn't "get" Karsten.
Holding hands so nicely. At least Jimmie thinks so ;)
You can just tell these guys have been buds long before this. Jimmie was very concerned for Karsten when he was crying. He just kept looking at him and then to me like, "What's wrong with Karsten, Mommy? Why is he so sad?"
See? Very concerned.
And here's a shot with Karsten and his Daddy :) I think they like eat other a bit ;)
Quite the face, Karsten!
Jimmie and Aunt Megan
Interesting tummy time...
Found these on my phone. Hahaha, Daddy must have been helping Jimmie take selfies.
Just doing some playing!
Totally crashed
Meg getting some recipes from Mom
This year was the first time for any of us to do Thanksgiving on our own, but we just kind of went for it! It turned out awesome!
The turkey may not look the fanciest, but I was proud or myself because I've never made a whole bird before or even dealt with one. The concept of sticking blocks of butter and herbs under the skin was so strange to me! I found it a tiny bit dry, but I'm not really one for the light meat anyway.
We had mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, corn, lima beans, stuffing, turkey & gravy...
Ham, rolls, jello, cranberry sauce, and a fruit salad. We also has pumpkin pie, banana cream pie, coconut cream pie, and chocolate cream pie. We were very successful with the crusts...the cream of the pies could have used a bit more setting up ;) they were a but runny. Oh, and the chocolate turtles mentioned earlier.
Jimmie wasn't quite sure how to cope with all the new smells...haha!
Overall, a great success by all I think!
And Jimmie got Squash :)
We also got to try and take a few family pictures while we were down there. Meg took some pictures of us and we took some for Meg. Unfortunately, we got a late start in the day and it was starting to get a little too dark. If we had gone earlier, we would have been able to retake some once we realized he camera had been on the wrong setting. I guess I accidentally had the camera on the wrong setting when I gave it to Meg and it took a bunch of pictures and combined them into one...resulting in confusing blurriness. I fixed the setting for hers and we got a few before it got very dark and thankfully a few of ours actually turned out pretty good.
Here's a few that weren't too terribly blurry:
(Love his face here!)
And here's a little sample of the pictures I took for Megan:
And Jimmie got to swing in a swing for the first time! He liked it, but was pretty sleepy by that point:
Jimmie wasn't very happy to leave :( I think we all would have liked to have been able to stay a few more days. The drive home was so incredibly long because of traffic. As you may have guessed, I've written 99% of this post on my phone on the way home. Because what else is there to do in a pitch black car with a sleeping baby next to you? (I already slept and talking wakes this boy) It took us 5 hours just to get out of California when it should have been 2 max. Thankfully the traffic lightened once we passed Las Vegas and we got home around 11ish... So a 13 hr drive. I tell you it felt MUCH longer than that to everyone, especially Jimmie. But he made it! We are just glad to be home for now.
We are so grateful for Steph, Marc and baby Karsten for letting us come visit, temporarily take over their house, and make Thanksgiving with us! I hope you guys had as much fun as we did and can't wait to see you guys again!
So thankful for my wonderful family, near and far and their continual love and support. I'm grateful for modern technology that keeps us all connected and possessions that provide conveniences greater than I think we can even comprehend. It's easy to take all that we have for granted or find the negatives in life. I'm grateful for the truthfulness of the gospel and the eternal perspective that it grants us. As November comes to a close, I'm counting my blessings and realizing, even more, how truly blessed we all are. But my number one blessing from this entire year is this sweet little man. He's changed my life entirely in the last 6 months and I couldn't imagine it any other way. I would not trade what we've gone through and the blessings we've received for the world.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
