This year marked the first time since 2014 that we hosted family in Colorado for Thanksgiving. It was a great time! And things are so much easier when you have a sister living 7 minutes away! It was so nice to share the Thanksgiving prep work, and the house guests! Day one we had soup and salad, pulled off a fun Thanksgiving Escape Room in our basement, and decorated Turkey Sugar Cookies.

Thanksgiving morning dawned bright and early with a Family Turkey Day 5K! A few of the kids ran the 1/2 mile kids run, and the rest of us did the 5k. I was glad to run with my sisters this year and leave Blake to his own devices. And aren’t we cute in our matching hats?

Dinner came together in a flash. I spatchcocked and dry-brined the turkey and we smoked it on the Traeger. It was so very delicious and cooked really fast. Everything was tasty, and after dinner Papa told us all about our Mayflower ancestors. It was so cool!Dan made sourdough rolls that everyone LOVED. Halle had to be back in Ft Collins by 4:30pm for band rehearsal. LAME. But their last home game is tomorrow. They held a fun end-of-the-year banquet after rehearsal. We sent her with a piece of pie and Rusty drove her back. The rest of us played some games, had post-dinner naps, and then it was pie time. Good day!

Friday I proved that I have the best family in the universe. Not only did they spend their precious time, but they also spent their precious money to come to the Rams Football game. Just because they love Halle. Because, per usual, the football was SO BORING. But the Rams came through for us today and we won! That was a fun way to end the season. It was a 55 degree day, so sitting in the sun was glorious. We tried our hardest to get on the Jumbotron, but no luck. After the game we grabbed Halle’s stuff and introduced the family to Comet Chicken.

We drove back to Carlie’s house and played our favorite game. Lucky Carlie got strep throat.

Saturday started with Acai bowls and Trader Joes Pan au chocolate. Always a hit. Josh to Grandma and Grandpa and Cole to the airport and then met the rest of us at Whimsey Paint and Sip. We had a really good time doing our paintings! We painted for two hours and the time flew by. It was fun to see how unique everyone’s painting turned out. That evening was adult night out. We went to Mercantile for dinner. We’d planned to walk around downtown, but it was just too darn cold. So we just hung out in Union Station and got waffles. Now that Halle is officially an adult, she got to come with. TBD if she’ll want to come again–adult conversation can get boring.

We are so glad and grateful that everyone came out to be with us. Holidays are always better with family.