Since Chris was deployed, there was nothing holding us back from going up to Carolyn's early and visiting some friends soooo . . . we did! First, we met up for dinner with Aly's friend Whitney and her mom whom she met in Paraguay at HEFY. They just happen to live in the Stake next to our cousins, so that's helpful!
Next, we headed up to Kentucky for a day trip. When we were up in Tennessee for Hurricane Michael the kids were begging me to take them up to Kentucky to see their friends, but we were on a day by day basis on when the kids would go back to school and I was just a little too stressed for something like that. So I told them that if it worked out we could come up for a day during Thanksgiving break. My good friend, Heather, who had moved up to Indiana also came down and we gathered as many people as were available to come at the church. It was like we had never left. The kids all just jumped in and started playing and goofing off and the moms just started gabbing.
Kentucky was such a good time for my family. I have never met such down to earth, genuine, friendly, accepting people in my life. They welcomed my kids and our family wholeheartedly. I will always remember Kentucky as a time of healing for our family where we were given the space to take a break from deployments and crazy military life and just be a family. Such a good season in our lives.
Of course we had to stop by our old house on the way home as well. Ah, memories.
Back with the Paine's there was a lot of fun people to see and fun activities going on. Grammy was here this year and really liked the calendar of family pictures we gave her for the year.
The girls made a wooden nativity and the traditional gingerbread houses.
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| Kate made a little girl sledding this year. . . and not sure what's going on with her face... |
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| Lise and Aly chose not to be pictured with their gingerbread houses this year. |
The weather was perfect. There were a lot of outdoor games . . . and indoor games going on. Just lots of fun and good times all around.
Unfortunately, it wasn't all fun and games. Aly and Lise got into a wrestling match with Aly's computer and it ended up hitting Aly in the face and chipped a large piece of her front tooth out the night before Thanksgiving. That was a fun experience, let me tell ya.
Nobody was open on Thanksgiving, of course, so Aly just had to suffer through it and kind of mush her Thanksgiving feast on the roof of her mouth. We were able to find a dentist who was willing to come in on Friday and fix her up though, which was good because Aly started having in a lot of pain and developed major sensitivity to heat and cold (and air). And she came out looking as good as new, thank goodness. (And for $650 out of pocket it better look as good as new!) Chalk it up to one of those life experiences that you've just got to deal with. Hopefully Aly and Lise learned their lesson . . . but there have been plenty of arguments since, so I'm not sure. But less throwing and grabbing things, so that's good.
But, tooth or no tooth, the Thanksgiving festivities must go on! Thanks to the chefs who always make our Thanksgiving so scrumptious. There was tons of delicious food, as always, and a nice full table of people we love to eat and share it with.
Following the feast, there was the traditional ping pong tournament. We had to work off some of those calories before we eat some pie!
Thanksgiving also happened to fall on Aly's birthday this year, so she got the first piece of pumpkin pie with a candle in it.
The following day there was the traditional bowling and white elephant gift exchange. Lots of good stuff there.
So, another amazing Thanksgiving. Until next year . . .
. . . Oh, and let's take a minute to talk about how Chris spent his Thanksgiving . . . why, he was working, of course. Because that's what a deployment is - working all day, every day, no weekends, no holidays. Poor guy, he really deserves a break.
He did volunteer to serve the Thanksgiving meal at the chow hall to the soldiers, just to shake things up. What a great guy. Love that man!
And one final tidbit that I want to throw in here. I didn't get to watch the UofU/BYU football game this year. But I did see the highlights and man, it was awesome! Go Utes!!
