Thanksgiving 2010

Wow! Another holiday, another feast and another year that's almost over.

This year Kiel's family drove from the bay area, Utah, San Diego and Redondo Beach (that's us) to meet in the beautiful, small, always reminds me of Modesto/old Tracy town of Yucaipa!

The Jordan's (Kiel's sister and her husband) opened their home and kitchen so we could all prepare a feast and enjoy it together :) Unfortunately I left my SD card in my computer therefore I was unable to take any pictures. But I'm not opposed to stealing, so don't mind if I do:)

This was Bruce's first Thanksgiving so I thought it was appropriate to dress him up like a turkey. Here he is with all of his cousins on Kiel's side.

Jack, Bruce, Mariah, Logan and Sydney

I think it's neat that all of the cousins are so close in age and there are lots more to come! Baby girl Erica Brown is scheduled to arrive in February!

On The Menu: Turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn pudding, green salad, green beans, deviled eggs w/ way too much horse radish, home made bread, pumpkin, apple and icecream pie and chocolate delight.

I made the green salad, deviled eggs w/way too much horse radish and chocolate delight dessert.

Everything was delish! Kiel stayed back and kept the highways safe for us californians and made quite a few people NOT enjoy their Thanksgiving holiday.

After dinner and dessert we went home to feed Kiel and Friday morning we were on the road again to the Jordan's.

We ate more food, took care of our babies, tried to pack up lots of times and finally we were ALL out the door to Oak Glen where the Apple Butter Festival was lighting up the whole glen.

Since everyone was together minus Brigitte's husband Tyler we decided to take a family picture. Brittany is quite the talented photographer and probably has skills we haven't even seen in this department ;) So after in depth deliberation on the perfect spot, who should be where, and some sacrificing their "good side" so we could have a balanced picture this is what we came up with:

Pretty good eh? We told the children not to look at the camera...such good listeners!

And since Brittany is oh - so - talented and as of right now not charging anything we decided to take advantage of her services and had her take a family snap shot of us:

We also tried to get a decent shot of all of the Christensen grankids but of course there are a few unhappy campers...

And here are Bruce and Sydney:

After the photo session ended we explored the apple butter town and then went back to the Jordan's for more food. We then left Bruce with the Jordans and Keogans so we could go see a the new Harry Potter with Brigitte, Kerry and Patrice.

We all enjoyed the movie very much and can't wait for the huge finale! Bruce was peacefully asleep when we went to pick him up and stayed that way until 7 in the morning! I think the trick to get him to sleep through the night is to have someone else watch him. He has since given me a couple more good night sleeps so hopefully we are starting habit that won't be broken.

All in all it was a great weekend and we were excited for Bruce to finally meet his cousin Logan and Aunt Brigitte. He has now met all of his first cousins, a few of his second cousins, all of his aunts and most of his uncles.

We are looking forward to the holidays to come and wish everyone a happy winter. (I bet you thought I was going to say a happy new year, but I didn't. That's because I'm unpredictable at times!)