Our Thanksgiving weekend was full of get-togethers and activities, so we reserved Thanksgiving Day for just us five at home.

Wednesday night was the annual Pie and Praise at church. I took my signature sugar cream pie, and we remembered how last year’s Pie & Praise was the first service we held in our new church house. (The church had just gotten the keys to the house that day, and we were locked out of the middle school, so to the new house we went!)

Thanksgiving morning was spent cooking and watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. I loved explaining about the marching bands and the balloons and floats to the boys. They’ve been to a few small parades, but not ones they would remember.

Our big dinner was served mid-afternoon, and–while it was a lot of work–I was having fun making some recipes from scratch for the first time. I made green bean casserole, including the mushroom cream soup and the fried onions from scratch, and stuffing waffles. Yes, stuffing waffles. Stephen had sent me this link about making stuffing in the waffle iron, so I decided to give it a go. I’d say it was worth repeating. Stephen doesn’t normally eat stuffing, but he liked the crispy outside of this variation on stuffing.

We tried something new this year and asked the boys what they were thankful for. I wrote down their answers on foam maple leaves and hung them around the kitchen doorway.

After lots of football watching all day, we visited the park for a little bit of fresh air. My mom had sent the boys a collection of cool paper airplanes, so we took those along to test them out. Then it was back home for pie and some cozy hot chocolate.

Friday was Cooper’s 3rd birthday, and it was an all day celebration. On Saturday, we met the Flores family at the Goodyear park for a picnic lunch. It was a beautiful sunny, cool day. Silas wanted to sit by Ruben II, and Cooper wanted to sit by Ruben I. Good thing there were enough Rubens to go around!The Floreses hold a special place in our hearts, and as of September, they are now our neighbors–just two minutes away!

Our celebration weekend ended with family pictures taken in Verrado (the community where Crossroad meets). My friend, Jen Barnes, is a talented photographer who does beautiful work. So glad she could capture our little family at this moment in time.