Scenes from Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2012 has come and gone.

I had the whole week off school, which was so nice.

It was busy, but it wasn't.

We spent many a day in our jammies.

But, I was also getting a lot of prep done for my Mom's 60th Surprise Party.

Luke also had one of his roughest weeks in terms of sleep.

He was up until 3am the night before Thanksgiving. No fun.

Thanksgiving morning, we had to be up and at 'em, because we were headed to the Horse Races with Kevin's family!

Kevin's family has been going to to the horse races on Thanksgiving for over 50 years. It was a tradition his grandpa started.

Good food, good drinks, horse races & football on mini TV's. It's great.

His family has a race dedicated to them because they have been going for so long.

When it's time for our race, we get to head down to the race track & watch that race up close and personal.

Then, we get to take a photo with the winning jockey:

I always like to get a family photo of just our family:

 {Don't be fooled....this is not a happy family photo. This is grumpy & tired family photo}

I only eat 2 meals on Thanksgiving. Eggs Benedict at the races & then Thanksgiving Dinner at my parent's:

Beautiful Views of the San Fransisco Bay while I ate. You can see the Bay Bridge on the left and Golden Gate Bridge in the far distance on the right:

One of my goals every year is to also get a pic of the kids. It's a little trickier with 3 kids:

I finally gave up & got one of just Luke. Happy 1st Thanksgiving, Buddy!

Boy clothes are growing on me. Argyle Vests & Corduroy Shoes? I die of cuteness.

After the races, we went home quickly and I had to snap a photo of the Japanese Maple in our front yard because it is finally changing colors.

Then, we headed to my parents for dinner.

 Thanksgiving Dinner is probably one of my favorite meals of the year. 

We had Turkey, homemade cranberry sauce, Baked Corn, Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potato Casserole, Sausage Stuffing & Broccoli Salad. YUM.

 Kate made this votive in Kindergarten & it now a part of our Thanksgiving Dinner Tradition to pass it around & say what we are thankful for.

Dessert was Pumpkin Cheesecake and Kahlua & Coffee.

The next morning, we watched the Thanksgiving Parade (that we had DVR'd) since we were too rushed/grumpy on Thanksgiving morning to watch it. I wanted a Thanksgiving morning re-do :)

Later on Friday night, we headed to our town's annual Tree Lighting Event to officially ring in the Christmas Season.

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Speaking of Christmas,

If you hop over to Pinterest Told Me To, 

you can check out my friend Sheaffer's first 3 installments of her 

12 Days of Christmas series to get fun gift ideas!

Need some $ to buy Christmas gifts?  
Click HERE to enter my $100 Visa Giftcard Giveway!