Thanksgiving Weekend

Our Thanksgiving didn't quite go as we had planned. We were wanting to spend the weekend at my parents house with my entire family. My parents leave on Monday for their mission to Sierra Leone, so we had big plans to celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas and have a lot of family time. Unfortunately, sickness got in the way. Gavin had been sick for at least five days and things didn't clear up until after Thanksgiving.

We took it easy on Thanksgiving morning. We ate our Thanksgiving at home with just our family. Not as fun, but a Thanksgiving we will always remember. I was assigned sweet potatoes, stuffing and a few pies for our Thanksgiving feast. I made them up ahead of time and sent most of it down with my sister (minus the pies, which I didn't make and they still had plenty). I kept enough for our family. Grandma Fowler was wonderful and sent up some turkey and gravy. My sister dropped off some rolls when she picked up our food. And finally, Greg snagged a pumpkin pie at Costco the night before. The only thing left to fix was mashed potatoes. Everything was delicious! Poor Gavin wasn't able to each much, but the rest of us enjoyed our Thanksgiving.

Since we were quarantined to our home, Greg and I decided to break out an early Christmas present to help entertain the kids. We found these on Costco.com and am so happy we got some. The kids have loved their Brik-a-Bloks. They are large plastic panels that snap together to form tunnels, forts, rooms, etc. The kids had a great time. Enoch did most of the building, Kate did most of the playing and Gavin gave instructions from the couch. We squeezed our structures into the family room and left it up for a few days (until we got our tree).

Later that night, Greg and I were talking in our room when we heard a loud thud and then Kate screaming. Greg ran to see what the matter was and came back holding Kate with Kate holding her arm. She was inconsolable. She couldn't even tell us what happened. We figured she must have hurt her arm because she was very careful with it. She ended up sleeping in our room so we could keep her from rolling onto that arm and waking herself up screaming. Greg, finally slept on the floor after trying to fit three of us in the bed. Kate does not share bed space.

The next morning, Kate was still really hurting and Gavin still wasn't any better. After visiting with the doctor, he felt that Kate possibly broke her collarbone and that Gavin had pneumonia. He sent us to the hospital for x-rays. Gavin's came back positive, Kate's negative. We started Gavin on antibiotics and he perked up within a few days.

We spent Saturday working on Enoch's new downstairs room (the baby is getting his current room) and cleaning up from the weekend. We also had fun watching a hot-air balloon land in the field behind our house. Greg cleaned the church and I took care of sick and injured kids.

Saturday night my parents stopped by and dropped off Christmas that we missed the day before. The kids were so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa and open their presents. Greg and I each got a book and gift cards to Ikea. Gavin got some books, Pinky and the Brain DVDs and a Spock Santa hat. Enoch got a Eyeclops (the thing that you hook up to your TV and it magnifies everything by 200 times). Kate got the Playmobil dolphin set. Enoch and Kate also got a wiggle car each. It was great! Everyone loved their presents and have played with them every day since. We let the kids ride their wiggle cars in the kitchen and they have loved them. And Kate has played with her dolphins every day since getting them. She is having so much fun with them.

The next morning, Grandpa and Grandma came over to visit some more and we loved having them over. After spending the morning with us, we all went to church. After Sacrament Meeting, we said good-bye in the parking lot, which was hard, but short, so that was good. We will miss them so much!

It was a crazy weekend, busy and lazy at the same time.