Thanksgiving Week

It's been a while since I was late with a blog post. I blame Thanksgiving. Not that it was super busy - in fact it was the opposite. It was so laid back and chill that I had a hard time coming back from that and meeting something as arbitrary as a deadline for my own blog. 

But I do want to get this updated before December gets too crazy. So let's go through this recap. 

First up is the little trip we took around Twin Falls to look at "Old West" stuff with Derrick. He's been really into the Back to the Future trilogy lately. And since the 3rd movie is set in 1885 he's been obsessed with "The Old West."  (He says it with a lot of extra flare on the st of West. It's cute.) He's wanted to know about ancestors that were alive in 1885. So we had fun looking at the Family Tree App one Sunday. And then he wanted to see buildings from the Old West. 

Twin Falls is actually a relatively young town. It wasn't founded until 1905. Before that they did have a stage coach stop within the now city limits, but that wasn't even an overnight stop. It was just where they rested horses at noon. 

But the bigger stage coach stop isn't very far away from town. So we decided to go out and see that on Sunday afternoon. 

This is known as the Stricker Homestead. The Stricker family managed the stage coach stop at this spot. There was a small store here as well. It's also known as the Rock Creek Station because it was the name of the stage coach stop. I'd checked a book out from the library for Derrick to look at. He was so excited when he realized the house we were looking at matched the house in the book.  

Everything was closed for the season, so we couldn't go in the house. But we could look in the windows. 

Here's Derrick next to a marker talking about the site. He read every word. 

We walked out to the little store. I didn't realize it at the time, but later we read a sign and realized that THIS was where the Oregon Trail went through the area. 

Derrick loved every info plaque. Oh and if any of this looks vaguely familiar it's because Derrick and I actually went on a field trip here when he was in 4th grade. He hadn't like this place as much back then. But also it had been an extremely cold and windy day in May when we were here before. Somehow I think this day in November was actually warmer. 


We went into the massive rootcellers that were behind the store. 


They were pretty cool looking. 

The kids thought it was pretty cool (even if their faces don't show that.)


Here's the store. 



This other building was a house, but then was turned into some sort of barn.


There was a sign saying there was a cemetery about 1/4 of a mile away along a foot path. So we followed the only foot path we could find - but it ended at some barbed wire. 

We ended up driving back along the road and saw the cemetery. So we turned on a dirt road and drove right up to it. 


A monument explained how everyone here had died. One was crushed by wagons. Derrick thought that was interesting. 


Each grave was protected by piles of lava rocks.

That was all for the Stricker site. We were going to go to one more place. As we started heading that direction we saw another old graveyard. So we stopped to look at that. 

The headstones were all from the 1920s and 30s.


We'd been about 20 minutes southeast of Twin Falls. Now we were heading another 20 minutes east. We were going to the Milner Dam site. 

I've wanted to come out here for several months. Earlier this year I read a history of Twin Falls. This dam made the city and all the farming in the area possible. They dammed the Snake River about 20 miles upstream from Twin Falls and then diverted all the water to canals that ran through the area. People were able to farm land that previously had just been covered in Sage Brush. That's why this area is called "The Magic Valley" because everything seems to grow with magic. The city of Twin Falls was established by the Twin Falls Canal company so there would be an infrastructure in place to support the farmers. 

Anyway, It's all possible because of this dam. You can see the (modern) dam on the left of the picture. The canal is on the right. 

There were info signs talking about everything. 

And some monuments. But there were also lots of signs telling us to not go any further. This dam is very off limits. 


We went home by driving north and then getting on the freeway. This part of I-84 is kind of boring and non-descript, but now that I know the dam is nearby I think it will make this part of the freeway a little more interesting. 

Derrick was still very interested in looking at old things. So we dropped everyone else off at the house and went to find some more old buildings from his book. He'd already recognized St Edwards Catholic church because it's by the library. So we went there first. 


Then I took him by the court house. 


Behind the courthouse is this old inn that's now an admin building for I think the county. 

Derrick loved matching the buildings in the book to real life places. He called it a scavenger hunt. He'd had such a fun afternoon. I'd had a good time too. The other kids had been a little reluctant, but they'd enjoyed getting out of the house on this bright sunny day. 

That evening we kicked off Christmas movies with Muppet Christmas Carol. It's the best Muppet movie, the best Christmas Carol movie, and quite possibly the best Christmas movie. I love it so much.  The kids didn't have school the next day or any day that week so they were happy to stay up. 

On Monday we started our relaxing week with a doctors appointment right at 8:00 AM. I don't know who is making these appointments lately, but she really sucks at her job. For some reason I'd thought that it would be a great idea to schedule Charlotte and Lydia's annual doctors appointments at 8:00 AM. That meant we had to be there at 7:45. Charlotte doesn't even get out of bed until 7:45 on school days. 

I think I was trying to avoid having them miss school, and maybe this was the only time available? I don't know. 

Both of them were in their pajamas, but they were there and the appt went well and then we could go home and not have any other commitments all week. 

I went to work for a while in the morning. Then that afternoon I just kind of did nothing. This became my default mode for the week. It was kind of like my body was saying, "just take a break."  So I did. 

Other people were busy though. Brandon had started getting things ready for pies on Sunday night and was busy making some on Monday. He had 3 pies done by Monday night. 

Charlotte painted this picture for her art class. 

Lydia was busy crocheting. She made this sea turtle. 

My original "plan" for this week was more like a wish. The kids had the whole week off and it ended with Brandon's birthday. I dreamed of taking the whole week off and going somewhere like San Diego California. But that never happened. Brandon didn't have a job so we couldn't afford to go somewhere like that. And even if he'd had a job they wouldn't have let him take the time off. 

Another plan for the week had been to go down to Utah and do Thanksgiving with my family. Brandon's family does Thanksgiving every other year and this was the off year. But we've never really established a Thanksgiving tradition with my family. And again, we didn't really have the money for a trip down to Salt Lake. 

Brandon and I talked about it and realized that what we really wanted to do anyway was to just stay here. We had some community things that we'd gone to two years ago that we wanted to do again. I knew that my friends Jori and Chandler were planning a Friendsgiving so I asked if we could join. They said yes. So all of this sounded great. 

Then Chandler's sister decided to drive up from California so she dropped out of Friendsgiving. So that just left me and Jori's families - which would still be 12 people. 

Chandler and I had been talking about how now she was on her own she would have to make the rainbow jello that was a tradition in her husband's family. She was like, "I just don't know if I have it in me."  So on Monday as I watched Brandon start putting together our rainbow jello I told him that Chandler wasn't sure about making it herself. I asked him if he'd be willing to make it for her. Brandon said, "As long as she provides the pan I'll make it for her."

I texted that to Chandler and she replied, "For reals!"  I said yes. And then next thing we knew Chandler was dropping off a 9X13 baking dish. She basically ran it up to our door. Brandon and I laughed and laughed about how eager she had been. 

That evening Charlotte, Lydia, and Brandon went to their community art class. Lydia drew this. 

Tuesday was a lot like Monday. Brandon made more pies and took the total to 7 I think. The kids did more arts and crafts and watched lots of movies. And I worked. 

That evening I decided to actually accomplish something creative. So I got the paint out and worked on a project that has been YEARS in the making. 

Two years ago I asked Brandon to recreate a little wooden Christmas Tree wall hanging that my family had the whole time I was growing up. Brandon started working on it and even bought a scroll saw. But it was tricker than he thought it would be to get the wooden pieces to line up. 

Last year he went back to work on the project and ended up figuring out a way to look like it had individual pieces, but not have to be that intricate. He game me the tree all put together, but it still needed to be painted. 

So now I sat down and finally painted it. It turned out so well! Brandon had found a picture online of what the original tree had looked like and had used that as a guide for how to cut out the wood. But I didn't know where that picture was anymore. So I did this from memory. When it was all done I was like, "This looks like I just found the original!"

It's slightly different - the original boarder was red. And there were little boxes at the bottom for each ornament. But it's pretty dang close. 

Now it just needs nails. We've made ornaments out of sculpy clay. The idea is that you hang one ornament a day until Christmas Eve. There is supposed to be a star that goes on the tree on Christmas Eve, but it was very intricate so we didn't worry about that.  

I'm very pleased with how this turned out. 

Wednesday was my last day of work for the week. I only had to do about 2 hours and even that felt too long. 

Then it was back home for more relaxing. 

Every year there's a moment where I start counting how many pies we actually have stashed around the house. This year I found most of them on our food storage shelves. There are 7 pies in this picture. There were also at least two more in the freezer in the garage. 

Here are the two pumpkin pies. The one in the square dish says, "Pi R Squared."  Charlotte had helped Brandon with a lot of the pies. She was basically in her Thanksgiving Apprentice. I was like, "Thank goodness Brandon found a cooking buddy to pass on all his tricks. Now I never have to be in charge of Thanksgiving."  She learned so well that she actually made another pumpkin pie on Sunday nearly by herself. 

That night we were going to Pie Night at our neighbors house. This was one of the reasons we were excited to stay in Twin Falls for Thanksgiving. We'd gone two years ago and had a really great time. A few weeks earlier I'd been at church and I'd asked DeeAnn, "Are you guys doing pie night this year?"  She said yes and I said, "Oh good, because it's already on our calendar." 

Brandon brough a banana cream pie and an apple pie. The apple pie was made with filling from the apples I picked and processed in September - see I did help a little. 

Pie night was so much fun. It's hosted by a couple in their late 50s, but quite the cross section of ward members show up. There are people in their 80s all the way down to a little 5 year old. And the pies were so good!  I voted for a Cranberry Pecan Pie. It lost to a raspberry cream pie that didn't look very good, but had amazing flavor. 

Thursday was Thanksgiving and it was one of the best Thanksgiving's ever. Jori and Tim were hosting at their house so we didn't have to worry about cleaning our house. They were also cooking the turkey. So Brandon didn't have to wake up early to worry about that. And they didn't want to eat until 4:00 so we didn't have to get up early to start cooking either. 

So we slept in until 9:00. Then we turned on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Peacock on Brandon's laptop. We watched that while Brandon made 6 dozen rolls and some other sides. The kids turned on the parade downstairs and watched it down there. 

I was feeling tired so Brandon gave me one of his Celsius energy drinks. These work really well. Within a few minutes I was starting to measure the wall in the kitchen that we are thinking of taking out in January. Brandon was like, "Nope, you're not tired any more."

After the parade was over I took a shower and then we went over to Jori's. She needed to borrow 4 of our chairs so first I drove over there with the chairs and Veronica. Two of her girls basically had their noses pressed to the door when we arrived. They were so excited to see us. 

I dropped off the chairs and Veronica and then drove home to get the food. I loaded it up in the back of the van and drove that over with Derrick and Brandon. 

Jori only lives one street away so Charlotte and Lydia just walked over a little later. They'd wanted to put some time into hair and make up since it was a holiday. 

Then we all just hung out and talked while Jori and Tim cooked the turkey and worked on sides. Jori has four girls ranging in age from 9-5. She and I have bonded over many things, but one of them is that we had four kids in an insanely short time. I'd brough our Picwits game so me and Veronica and Charlotte played that with the girls. It was really fun. 

Here I am a little later trying to take a selfie with Jori's amazing rainbow wall. 

I should have zoomed this out more so you could see more of the wall. It's incredible. 

We had two cheese balls, a veggie tray, and deviled eggs to snack on while we waited for the actual dinner. But even with that, we were all starving by the time the turkey was done. 

We loaded up our plates and everything was so good. 

The kids ate in the living room. 

Here are me and Brandon. Jori got a picture of all four of us, but she hasn't sent it to me yet. 

She also got a picture of all the kids smiling at their table. I wasn't so lucky. 

After dinner we sent the kids downstairs to watch Arthur Christmas - Jori's kids had never seen it so we'd brought it over to show them. 

When that was over it was time for pie. I was still stuffed, so I only started with a slice of a key lime pie that Brandon made. It was INCREDIBLE. He's never made one before, but now he HAS to make one every year. Later I also made room for a little bit of pecan pie. 

Veronica and Jori's girls played a game with blankets and wanted me to see and take pictures. 

Here's a picture of everyone hanging out in the living room. Derrick spent most of the time playing on Brandon's phone. But at least he was there. 

Tim's family has a tradition of playing a game called Nuts all day on Thanksgiving. He taught it to us. And LOOOOOOOK I finally got a picture with all four of us adults. 

Here's another view of the living room. Charlotte and Lydia had taught Jori's kids how to play treat or trash. I'm not sure if that's what's happening here, but we'll say it is. 

We finally went home around 10:00 or maybe it was 11:00. I don't remember. 

I do remember that this had been such a great Thanksgiving. I'm so glad we got together with Jori and her family. 

Friday was a very relaxing day. I did log into my work account for exactly 24 minutes to make sure the automatic payments that come into our account hadn't made hash out of the billing system. (Half my job is just babysitting the online system to make sure it does the right thing.)

I spent some time down in Derrick's room helping him get it organized again. (I still forgot to take a picture.) I also went through his dresser and pulled out a lot of clothes that he'd outgrown. Then I went up to Charlotte and Lydia's room and went through their closet. Lately I've had them go through their closet and give me the stuff they have outgrown. But this time it needed an adult involved. They sat on their beds while I went through all the clothes. I'd hold things up and ask them if they still cared. We got rid of a lot of stuff that way. 

I ended up taking three garbage bags to DI that afternoon. That's the third weekend in a row that I've taken things to DI. I like the feeling of cleaning out things before Christmas. 

That night we went to Christmas in the Nighttime Sky. It started out with a bus ride from the Lighthouse Christian Church by our house.  Here's all the kids on the bus. Charlotte, Lydia, and Veronica were wearing hats that Lydia had crocheted. 

And here are me and Brandon. 

The busses took us to Kimberly Nurseries which is about a mile and a half away. This event is for a toy drive for the area. The price of admission was one unwrapped toy. But I just made an online donation ahead of time. 

We had a lot of things we could do when we got there. We could go stand by bonfires, or see Santa, or get in line for baked potatoes. We chose the food.  This was Brandon's first year here. When we were in line he asked me, "How much is the food?"  I told him, "It's free."  He was like, "Oh cool!"

Here we are with our baked potatoes and chili. 

Derrick wanted to see Santa so I took him over to the line. 

Here we are in line. 

And here his is with Santa. He rattled off that he wanted a Hot Toys Back to the Future Part 1 DeLorean. Santa was like, "Oh a Delorean. I'll see what I can do."

Later we also saw the Grinch. 

We met up with the others and went over to the bonfires. 

Those were fun to see and very warm. 

But the other kids were getting antsy and a little bored. So we wandered to the front of the area. It was next to the road that separated us from the field where the fireworks would be set off at 7:30. There was a small fire up front. There was also a pallet of pavers. I think it was there to block cars from parking there during the day, but it made a great place to lean and sit on.  We were bored so I started taking pictures. 

First it was just me and Derrick. 

Then Veronica jumped in. 

And then Derrick came back and Charlotte photobombed. 

And then everyone was in the picture and we took a decent family picture for the first time in a while. I called it a Thanksgiving Miracle. 

The firework show started at 7:30. It was really fun to watch. Though we were all getting cold by this point. 

As soon as it was over there was a mad dash for the buses. Two years ago this had been a really stressful situation. Derrick had freaked out and Veronica had freaked out because Derrick had freaked out. And Brandon hadn't been there. And this was before we discovered wool socks and handwarmers make winter evening activities more bearable. It just remember freezing and trying to keep all the kids calm. 

This year things were better. We still had to wait a good 30 minutes for our turn on a bus, but Brandon was there. We had wool sock and handwarmers. Derrick was older and so calmer. And so the wait didn't seem that long or stressful. 

We rode the bus back and then found our car in the parking lot. We drove home and then watched Christmas Vacation.  We'd been telling the kids that they were mature enough to wait in the cold without complaining. Charlotte had said, "Well if we are that mature, we can watch Christmas Vacation without fast-forwarding through the inappropriate parts."  Brandon said it was a deal. So we watched the whole thing. 

Saturday we slept in and then cleaned the house. We were waiting to put the Christmas decorations up until Sunday. We made sure to clean really well so we could get right to decorating on Sunday. 

Saturday was also Brandon's birthday. But we all kind of had the birthday blahs. His birthday had been hiding behind Thanksgiving so I'd never really planned anything and he didn't have any idea what he wanted to do. So we ended up doing no much. 

We'd planned to go out to eat for hamburgers to celebrate his birthday.  But we were still so stuffed from eating Thanksgiving leftovers that hamburgers didn't sound good. I told Brandon. "I want to eat a hamburger when I actually want to eat a hamburger."  So we decided to switch things around. We always have pizza on the Monday after Thanksgiving because that is such a hard day to get back into the swing of things. So this time we decided to do hamburgers on Monday and do pizza for Brandon's birthday. 

After dinner Brandon opened his presents. I'd bought him a wallet and some gloves that had flashlights on them. Both gifts were small so Veronica and I had had fun wrapping them in boxes and then putting those boxes inside bigger boxes and finally putting them both into a big gift bag. 

Brandon had fun trying to open them. 

Later that evening Derrick wanted me to help him write a letter to Santa. I helped him spell everything and he wrote it all himself. He wants the Hot Toy DeLoreans for all three back to the future movies.

Brandon had finally finished the ladder for Veronica's bed. (It had to wait for all the pies to be done.) She'd spent several days making a paper chains to cover the rest of the space. It looks so cool. 

After church on Sunday we started decorating for Christmas. We decided to put our tree in the corner rather than in front of the window this year. 

The whole room looks AMAZING. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

That evening we had lasagna for dinner. This was like our first real dinner in days. While we were waiting for it to come out of the oven we lit the first candle on the advent wreath. It was the hope candle. 

We finished the evening by watching A Christmas Story. This is the first time I've seen it since we saw the musical version last year. The musical version had me in tears at the end when Ralphie hugged his dad. I wish the movie ended with that. But the movie is still good. 

And that gets us through the last week of November and the beginning of December. We have a lot of fun things planned for this month. So I'm planning to keep this blog updated in a timely manner. 

Thanks for reading.