Home again, home again, jigitty jig...

We had such a WONDERFUL week of Thanksgiving! As Jason and I have talked about it, we have really felt it all month and continue to feel so much gratitude as we go into December and the Christmas holiday. We just have so much to be grateful for. I really like reading the lists that my sisters have done for the month of November as way of recognizing and giving thanks. But I think I better just blog about our Thanksgiving week.Alright the photos uploaded in a different order than I had intended. So oh well. We had such a great time taking Allie to go see "Peter Pan" (starring my sister-in-law Molly which is also from where I borrowed these photos). We stayed at Kent and Maria's house where Lindsay and James also stayed so they all watched Luke for us. That was kind of weird for Allie. I think it must have been one of the first times that we have gone somewhere without him because as we started to drive away she said "Where's Luke?" I told her this was just a special date for the 3 of us in which she replied incredulously "We aren't REALLY going to LEAVE HIM?" Luke would not have done that great watching the show but for Allie and Jason and I- it was AMAZING and so much fun! And of course Molly did a FABULOUS job! We have been playing Peter Pan ever since we got home. Allie is Tinker Bell, I am Wendy and Luke is Peter Pan. And just like in the play, every time I try to kiss Peter Pan- Tinker Bell pulls my hair.

On the way into SLC and on the way back home we got to stay the night with Grandma and Grandpa J. Grandma has decided to learn how to play the violin. I am really impressed and really proud of her! Here she is teaching Allie a few things. Luke was interested in learning as well although his technique was a little... rough.


Allie and Luke had a GREAT time playing with the cousins (well, so did Jason and I in fact- Thanks Uli, Camille, McCray, Reed, Henry, Morgan and Ellis for all the fun! We had some great games of Hot and Cold, Tickle Monster and Dodge the Nerf ball). Allie as always was thrilled with the dress ups. These above photos were her own composition! I just shot the picture. Silly girl.
We got to ride the train to Temple Square to go see the Christmas lights opening night. It was cold and there were a lot of people but we had so much fun! The above photo is us waiting for the train. Brrrrrrr. Luke got a new hat and scarf (which match his little jacket PERFECTLY) and mittens from his aunt Molly (THANK YOU Molly). He was nice and shared his mittens with Allie for the evening.

Thanksgiving dinner was soooooo good! Thanks to Carter's request and Lindsay's help (or was it really me helping Lindsay), I learned how to make Potato Rolls. Yummy! Lindsay and I just couldn't follow the recipe exactly though. In case some of you didn't notice, we did add some wheat flour so it wasn't all white. Not much though. But the rest of the dinner with Kelly and Erin as the head chefs and Carter and Dee helping was truly gourmet! It was so delicious!!! (I could add more exclamation marks but you get the idea). And so was Ma Stanberg's cranberry sauce (thanks Jay and Ilene- loooooove the stuff).

One of the highlights of the trip was the trivia game Lindsay came up with for Thursday night after the yummy pies Maria made. I think if we counted how many pieces of pie everyone ate the entire weekend that I would win. Hey- right place at the right time folks!

But the game... I had heard most of the stories before but there were a few new ones and the old ones were so fun to hear from the perspective of the other siblings! One of my favorite moments was when all the Payne siblings said, in unison, "Hello? Yes? Hi!"

It was so great that everyone made it- all 25 of us! Grandma and Grandpa Payne get the award for traveling the furthest. It was so fun to see them (our kids were so excited) and of course it wouldn't be the same without having them there. We LOVE you! We got some shots taken of everyone Thursday morning (thanks again Dee) and we are now waiting for uncle Jay Jay to send them out. Ok Jay, the pressure is on- we need them for our Christmas letters.

And about photos... after a great Payne-full week we realized we really didn't take that many pictures! Argh. We don't have any of all the cousins, or the aunts and uncles, no grandma and grandpa photos and I took my camera to photo-document our "Girl's Lunch" (so fun) and never took a single shot. Double argh!!! So I guess that is why we are especially anxious to see and get the photos off of Jay's camera (you guys don't have anything exciting going on in Logan any time soon- do ya...). Grandpa, I think you got some really cute shots on your camera too! Like the one of the Great Belly Comparison!?

So this was just a few of the highlights. The last photo of our trip was of Grandma and Grandpa J. on their way to church with little Lucy. They got to babysit while Vic and Molly barfed for a couple of days. That is so sweet that they do things as a couple!