Thanksgiving

We went to my parents' house for Thanksgiving.  It was a crazy but fun weekend.  We pulled the kids out of school at lunch so we could avoid the bad Wednesday evening traffic. Tonya and her family had arrived on Tuesday.  Martin was supposed to come but Jenny ended up in the hospital with complications from her gull bladder surgery so they did not make it.  My parents had come to Indiana for grandparents day a week and hald before and had taken Jacob home with them.  He was supposed to get one on one playtime with baby Keltin (Martin's son) since they were coming a week early.  Needless to say we had one very disappointed boy on our hands.  Mom and Dad had been counting on Martin and Jenny being around to watch Jacob while they worked.  Jacob got to spend a day at his friend Tyler's house.  Tyler had lived in our ward in Illinois and moved to the Cleveland area when we moved to Indiana.  My Aunt Karen and her family also came.   We had a fun full house and some crazy fun!   On Thursday Aunt Judy, Uncle Wayne, and my three cousins anad their families came for the day.  Its our tradition.  Growing up we would always meet at Grandma's for Thanksgiving and going shopping on Black Friday.  Our trip always included eating a hotdog place.  I was a brat and would through a major fit about this.  Afterall I was a teenage girl and hotdogs were not cool or healthy.  I would insist that they let me stop and buy a sub on the way.  As the grandchildren grew older and moved away the tradition gradually died off.
Asha lives in Pittsburg now and hosts Thanksgiving for her family.  Several years after Grandma passed away a new tradition was born.  Friday morning the Persauds wake up and drive the two hours to Cleveland.  And what do we do?  You guessed it, we shop and eat hotdogs.  Even last year, I refused to the hotdog and ordered their veggie burger instead.  It left a lot to be desired so this year I decided my revolt had gone on long enough.  I ate two hotdogs!!  We had incredible weather this year.  We spent the day at Crocker Park and even got to see Santa and ride a "train".  The train was really more of a tram but the little boys enjoyed it.  Its always sad when the day draws to a close and the Persaud clan files back in their rented van.  Special thanks to Asha's husband Shane who kindly drives the full sized van.  I know its probably not his vehicle of choice but it keeps them from needing two vehicles.  And somehow he manages to still look cool driving it.
Saturday we made our annual trek to the Wilcox Tree Farm to get mom and dad's tree.  Aunt Karen and family came with us.  I think we took 17 people to go cut down one tree.  We all had a great time and enjoyed the wagon ride and free hot chocolate.  Afterwards, all the local relatives joined us for game day.  I got a call later in the day from Nicholas.  They had spent Thanksgiving in Michigan with some old friends.  They had bad weather on the way out that made for a long trip.  He wanted to break up the return trip and called to say they'd be coming to my parents later that night.

The cousins were thrilled to see Weston.  This is all of them except Keltin....but we look forward to the arrival of Nicole in April!

Before heading home on Sunday, the kids got to decorate the tree

Our family at the tree in Crocker Park

Jacob and Mason (6 months apart in age)

The Persauds stopped at a coffee stand in Crocker Park.  My girls saw they also had hot chocolate and used their own money to buy some.  They thought they looke so cool with their cups of cocoa

I thought I had some pictures of our tree hunting expedition with the Sass family but can't seem to find them.