Chinese Turkey and Lots of Hockey Weekend

Thanksgiving: my favorite holiday of the year.

Thanksgiving in Alabama without my extended family, particularly if they are all together in Michigan without me: depressing.

But not so much this year, as I spontaneously decided to ward off my usual holiday blues and invite a couple of Chinese families from Tim's department to our house for a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner! One family asked if they could bring a turkey, as they already had it, but had never actually cooked one before. I'm particular about my Thanksgiving grub, so I was nervous. Guess what? Chinese people can cook turkey... I think they were surprised, too! :-) Libby and I did most of the rest of the cooking.

Kids' table (minus Jacob who is entertaining the guests in the corner of the room):

Libby was an amazing helper to me, cooking and cleaning! She even found a use for my Pumpkin Moon container.... plasticware dispenser! (Yes, I used plastic rather than wash dishes and I would do it again).

Early the day after Thanksgiving, we were off to Atlanta for Jacob's All-Stars hockey tournament. Five exciting, nail-biting games later, his team surprised and delighted us by becoming the CHAMPIONS of his age division!

Happy Car Riders:


Fun times at the hotel pool:


The family eating Chinese food (a theme?) at Discover Mills (mall). Jacob (intentionally) looking like a demon child from a horror movie!
Tim and Jacob in the Lego store:

Sarah and Jacob napping at the hotel after having to be at the rink at 5:50 a.m. Saturday:
Sarah was exhausted from plenty of waiting around:


Jacob was exhausted from plenty of this (he's number 46):

But it was all worth it to get this: (his face is directly to the right of the trophy)
Taking his turn holding the trophy:

Now it's back to reality.... laundry... grocery shopping... work and school tomorrow.....

Hey

Busy, busy, busy. I feel like lately I am running from one thing to the next, with little time for resting. And, I'm all about resting.... so this isn't how I like to live my life! :-) Right now my parents are in town and I am LOVING that! :-) But it's their fault I'm not blogging like I normally do.

Here are some updates from the past couple weeks:

Halloween:

Libby and her friend Alice were Mustard and Ketchup- so cute! Alice's mom bought the socks- I thought they were adorable!

Sarah was a "nerd"- and I never saw her completely dressed because she went with a friend, but these are the glasses she wore. (No offense to anyone who actually wears glasses like this....)

Jacob was the Incredible Hulk and I didn't get any pictures of him. You can probably imagine what he looked like. :-)

Soccer season is over... Sarah's team went to the regional tournaments and came in third. She was a star! Jacob's team didn't make it past the local tournament.... so I don't show favorites, he was a star, too, but he was like a white dwarf star or something... the kind that is small and not very bright. Ha ha. Just kidding. He says his soccer days are over and he just wants to focus on hockey. I concur.

Hockey is in full swing- Jacob is on a regular team, as well as a select team. The select team plays in like three tournaments, the first of which is over Thanksgiving break. That ought to be fun! He really loves hockey.

Libby is doing great in yearbook club and with piano lessons. She also seems to have inherited her mother's passion for pulling pranks. One night when her friend Sophie spent the night, they "forked" our neighbors' yard. I laughed at how they decided to line up the forks. I have so much to teach her!

One night I saw this beautiful sunset and stopped and took a picture!

I have more to blog about, but I'll save those things for future posts!