Thanksgiving

We spent a wonderful Thanksgiving in Castle Rock, CO with Chris' family! We pulled the kids out of school for a couple of days and arrived at Grandma's and Grandpa's Monday night. I have to insert here that the drive across KS and Eastern CO has to be THE MOST BORING DRIVE EVER! (If you've ever driven it, you know what I mean, but I will admit that driving across Wyoming and Nebraska come in at a close second.) The only sanity-savers are the giant wind turbines and stopping in Salina at Braum's for cheeseburgers and shakes. I did read all of "One," (Andre Aggasi's autobiography), on the way there, which I enjoyed, and Chris and I had a grand time planning out our March trip to Europe on the way back, but I digress...
So we arrived Monday night and spent some time with Wendy and family. On Tues. we were able to do a temple session with Wendy and Scott and Grandma (thanks, guys!) and Grandpa checked our temple recommends on the way in. I can't think of anything better than being in the temple surrounded by family!

Wendy and Scott left for UT on Wed., and Craig, Jenny and family were arriving Wed. afternoon, so we spent a relaxing morning with Grandma before everyone arrived. At lunchtime we went to Nordstrom's for their yummy tomato soup. Tasty!
Unfortunately Chris contracted some kind of nasty bug (it was so nasty I'm not going to describe it) and spent all of Wed. in bed. It was awful.

The other KS Stapleys arrived in the afternoon and Kiersten was thrilled to play the cello while Emily played the violin.

After a little practice, Emily on the violin (who is really good), Kiersten on the cello, and Abbie on the piano, played "Ode to Joy" for everyone.

While they practiced, we had a great time with Craig and Jenny and Tristan and Grandma and Grandpa.

Jenny flew out Thursday morning for her brother's wedding.Everyone else got Thanksgiving dinner ready. Everyone except Chris, that is. He didn't dare touch any food just in case he was contagious. He just watched from the sides, which about killed him. He was itching to roll some pie crust and carve that turkey! Instead, Craig did the honors.

The cousins and Kierst and Abs waiting for the turkey to be finished.

Lisi with her frozen fruit salad--a Stapley family tradition.

Thanksgiving night the girls opened letters and a package containing Christmas pjs from Santa. The letter talks about what good things they've done throughout the year and offers advice on things they can work on. A friend of mine introduced me to this tradition and I think it's great.

Not sure what Kierst was thinking after reading her letter--I think she was a little surprised this year at what Santa knows...

Abs wrote back a letter to Santa thanking him for the pjs and asking questions about his elves.

Lisi was thoroughly exhausted after dinner and snuck downstairs while the rest of us cleaned up. We found her fast asleep on the hide-a-bed.

Thursday night Chris and I hit the outlet by his parent's house for a midnight madness sale. By the time we got there, there must have been at least 3,000 people--Chris puts the number at more like 5-10,000 people--it was packed. We couldn't believe the crowd. We only went to a few stores, but we scored Columbia jackets for 80% off and some great Calphalon cookware for a fraction of the price. Thanksgiving isn't really Thanksgiving for me unless I get up before dawn and hit black Friday sales, so you know where I was at 4 a.m. I never really buy very much on black Friday, but for some strange reason I love the whole craziness--standing in line, half asleep, holding that one item you went early to get (knowing it would be gone in an hour--like itunes cards at Target), sympathizing with strangers about how crazy we all are to be up at this insane hour and standing in this insane line and how tired we'll be later on. Love it.

Kierst came down with the nasty bug on Friday (could this be any worse?--yes, Grandpa and Emily had it by Sat., the rest of us escaped-knock on wood). Everyone else cut open rocks and polished them and decorated Grandma's house for Christmas.

Thanks for all the fun, Stapleys and Hesses! And Tristan, we hope the next time we see you you'll be sporting a racoon cap...