Thanksgiving – part two

Chapman party

We started the party early, the ladies went and got their eyebrows waxed, which I LOVE to do by the way, such a great feeling to be all squeaky clean!  Then we did a kid drop in the movie theater parking lot and went in and saw New Moon.  I thought it was pretty good, I haven’t read the books so they are just mediocre movies to me. :)  But I can see how the books would be fun to read, maybe someday.  NOT a good picture of me, what the heck kind of face is that?  Oh well, you get the idea, we had fun!

The Ann and Brian were kind enough to host a party for Dan’s siblings and parents the night before thanksgiving.  I didn’t take many pictures, which is weird, I don’t remember why… maybe my battery died or something.  Ann made us some delicious stromboli and bread sticks for dinner.  Then we drew names, we just gave couples to couples this year, I liked it.  We did it different though, we drew the names and then drove straight down to Wal-Mart where we had an hour to get our gifts!  It was a fun twist.  We saw Matt and Cami once (not who we had) but I was a little too into it and yelled, “HEY, you stay away from us!!”  In retrospect not the best thing to yell in public. :)  Dan and I got some nice shower kits and 4 LIVE fish!  We had fun feeding our 20 cent fish over the next few days but opted not to take them on our 9 hour drive home.

That night Dan, his brothers Matt and Jason, my brothers Jack and Jonathan, ALL played computer games all night!  We can’t ever seem to have a trip home without Dan pulling an all-nighter playing video games.  I guess it must be worth it to them since they keep on doing it!  Crazy boys.

Quincy family dinner 

My mom was in Houston so we had to do Thanksgiving dinner WITHOUT HER!!  Actually, we usually don’t do a Quincy dinner, we usually just eat at Grandma’s but Meg spear-headed the idea of us doing our own, she did almost all the work!  She made a turkey, turkey breast, potatoes, gravy, green beans, 2 pies, and I’m sure something else I forgot.  I just made rolls and stuffing.  I must say the stuffing was REALLY good, no more stove top for me, I love the recipe I found.  The rolls weren’t as good as when my friend Mindy made them but I tried again last week and had SUCCESS! (Thanks Mindy!)  My cute dad woke up really early and set the table with mom’s china, peeled and chopped potatoes, then made a quick tri p to Lake Point (like 1.5 hour round trip driving I think) to do someone a favor, and was back before I even arrived to start cooking!  Sorry about the boring picture of my backside, but it’s like one of the only pictures of me from this trip so I decided to put it up. :)

My cousin Adam came with his family and their 2 cute babies, Ava’s the one with her tongue out and Sophie’s holding Grant.  They are only 4 months apart!  Can you imagine the craziness?  (Ava was adopted before they knew they were pregnant with Grant.)  I’m so glad they came!

I didn’t notice at the time that these next 2 pictures were out of focus, sorry.  Also sorry about cousin Eli’s creepy “molest-ache” (as Dan calls them) he was trying to look creepy in the picture, it worked… something about Movember??

 

I don’t think Josh and Meg coordinated their outfits on purpose… but it’s possible.  I think they are just such a cute couple they can’t help it!  That’s my cute little sister Joni helping me make an apple pie I had bought ingredients for but didn’t have time to make before dinner.  Even though she looks serious in the picture, it’s all an act.  We had a fun time cooking together, giggling and being silly.  I really really love my little Joni.

Dan came to bed at 6 AM Thanksgiving morning and set his alarm for 7 AM to go play in a turkey bowl.  True story, it wasn’t until last year that I found out when the guys go to a “turkey bowl,” they AREN’T actually bowling with turkeys… as a matter of fact there are no turkeys and no bowling, just football games… who knew?  Anyway, I don’t think the tryptophan can be blamed for this post turkey nap.  Jonathan could be found on the computer after dinner, all night wasn’t enough!

Ellis Family Reunion

Ok, I have 2 problems with the next group of pictures:

1.  I don’t know why we drive all this way to see people and I just take picture of MY kids!!  Really, that doesn’t make sense does it?  I plan to do better over Christmas taking pictures of all my fun cousins I only see a few times a year instead of my kids I take pictures of almost daily. 

2.  What was with me and the angled pictures on this trip??  Seriously like every other picture is at a funky angle!  I didn’t notice I did that until they are all side by side on here.

Anyway, it’s apparent by these pictures my girls were ripped away from their naps to get to the Ellis Family Reunion, Sophie was zoned out eating pie and Tessa had some wild hair!  I love my cute girls.

Sophie, looking homeless, and goofing off with MY little cousin Emily (I know, weird she’s my uncle Scott’s daughter who is the youngest of 10 children).  They really hit it off.  I think so anyway, Sophie is so over bearing that most children run away in fear at first and Emily did that a bit but then seemed to decide Sophie was okay.  Awwww, poor Sophie, it seems that BOSSINESS is an inherited trait from her mother.

Quick story:  When we were kids my mom had a reward charts for us and one day my oldest brother Jason (4 years older than me) said, “Mom, I need a sticker on my chart because I obeyed Jessica ALL DAY!”

Black Friday

Although Sophie got me up at 4AM to go potty I went back to bed and set out at the late hour of 7AM on Black Friday.  It’s hard to go early without my mom and sisters around to motivate me!  I still got some good deals though.  Including this game (Blockus) the guys are playing below for FREE and diamond stud earrings for $12.99 ($60 off)!  I love this picture by the way, they all have such different expressions, cracks me up!  Oh and the game is quite fun, we like it.

 

The cousins played all day at Grandma Chapman’s for their last day together and my girls were starting to get sick.  Which they always do at the end of our trips, I think I’ll try vitamins next time.  Sophie and Elise even skipped their naps, so when we went back to my parent’s that evening Sophie just climbed on the couch and didn’t move until we made her.  She had played really hard!

Whew!! It feels good to have that off my chest!  We always have such a fun time going home, thanks to everyone for making our Thanksgiving great, we are so thankful for you!  Now to check on Dan, he should be coming out of a 4 hour final right about now… only 2 more to go.