A Tiny Turkey for Two

We celebrated our first holiday in our new home here in PA yesterday. It was a beautiful day and we a enjoyed a lovely thanksgiving meal, home-cooked straight out of the box/bag/jar...

I know, I know...holidays are supposed to be times when you make homemade meals...but we were just too lazy! We are two very simple people and we had one very simple thanksgiving meal. No fuss, no stress...just yummy food!

Here's our tiny turkey that Jake cooked (sooo good!)

The table is all set

And, of course, we had pumpkin pie for dessert. Yes, it was store bought but at least it was made with local Lancaster County pumpkins...that's gotta count for something, right?

We had a relaxing and yummy Thanksgiving and hope you did too!

Now...let the countdown begin for Christmas!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

We wanted to take a minute to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

We are home today, just the two of us, enjoying some quiet, relaxing time together. Jake and I have so much to be thankful for this year. There are too many things to list, but the thing we are most thankful for is family. The past couple years have been nothing short of interesting for the two us and at times trying. Family has been our constant support and encouragement. I am thankful for my family who have always stood by and supported me. I am also thankful for Jake's family who have graciously welcomed and accepted me into their family. We are so grateful to have lots of family, whether near or far, that we know are always in our corner. Jake and I are also thankful for his children, Emma, Abby and Nate. They bring so much joy to us and we love them dearly. We are so happy to finally be living closer to them. It's great to be part of their lives on a more regular basis. Though we aren't as close as we would prefer to be or see them as often as we would like to, we are in a far better place with them this year than we were last and for that we are grateful. Another family that I am thankful for is Brinkley/Chatterton family. They have been gracious and kind to us under circumstances that can be difficult and stressful....and for that we are grateful.

Though we are not celebrating this holiday with family, we want you to know that you are in our thoughts and that we love you so much. We wish you all a beautiful thanksgiving day!

Love,

Jake and Nikki

Not much happening

Like I said, we had a pretty relaxing weekend. Other than putting up the Christmas tree, we really didn't do much. Except...

have way too much fun with our pancakes...

and learned how to play Battleship (Emma's request)...

And practice our matching ability with a game of memory...

But don't worry, next visit with the kids will more than make up for this lazy weekend! We are traveling to MA for a couple days to celebrate Christmas with the Marshall family, Daly family, and Delaney family!!! Whew...I'm tired just thinking about it!

Trimming the Tree

Sunday afternoon we finished decorating the tree. Emma and I worked hard putting on all the berries and ribbons...

While Abby and Nate kicked back and relaxed. I guess this part wasn't too exciting for them.

Nate was proud to put the star on top of the tree...

Emma quickly found the ornament she gave Dad last year for Christmas...

Nate liked all the snowmen...

And Abby managed to find all the angels...

Emma is quite the perfectionist about the placement of the ornaments. She kept fixing Abby and Nate's :)

For some reason, Nate liked this particular branch...can you tell?

Finishing touches...

Here it is!!

Oh Christmas Tree

The only project we had in mind of doing this weekend was putting up and decorating our Christmas tree. I know, I know, it's a little early for Christmas decorations but sometimes you just gotta do what you have to do! The next time we have the kids we are traveling to MA to celebrate the holidays with our families, and the visit after that is Christmas. So, if we wanted the kids to be part of the decorating process at our house, this was the weekend to do it.

This is the first time Jake and I have put up this particular tree. My mom got it for us last year at the end of the season for a great price, and let me say it is a great tree! It comes in three pieces with the lights already on it! Now, that's my kind of tree!!

Abby was pretty excited about this...can you tell?

It was great to have extra hands to arrange all the branches...

Since we had to pull out all the stuff for the tree from the attic, we decided to just take all the Christmas decorations down and put them up too...

After we set up the tree, we enjoyed some chocolate chip cookies and sang some songs together while Jake played the guitar...

Abby and Nate showed us their moves...

This boy loves his Daddy :)

Nate played a few chords for us on Jake's guitar....

And then he rocked out on his guitar!! Here he is playing a song for Mom who is on the phone...

A Relaxing Weekend

Since Emma had surgery on Friday morning, she needed to rest and take it easy for the next few days. This meant that the rest of us also got to take it easy too :) Can I tell you what a nice weekend it was? It seems like each visit with the kids there is always so much to do and we are constantly on the go. I think because we don't have them all the time, that the times we do have them we try to do as much as we can. While this is great, and we all have fun in our adventures....sometimes it's fun just to do nothing! It was nice to just hang out, play, watch movies, and be together without a schedule of events. Friday night we had a simple dinner, got in our pj's and went to bed fairly early.

Abby usually leads us in a mealtime song (she learned in school) before we eat together...

Nate and Jake being silly...

Nate loves to feed our family fish, Mr. Limpet

That's all the excitement of our Friday night :)

Home and Resting

Emma had surgery this morning to remove her adenoids and have tubes put in her ears. Jake was at the surgery this morning and he said she did great! Jake spent the afternoon resting with her and watching "Little House on the Prairie." She ate most of her dinner tonight and went to bed nice and early. Emma is such a good patient and seems to be doing really well. We are proud of her being so brave and having the surgery. Hopefully this will help end her battle with ear infections!

The "S" Word

I opened my front door to leave this morning, and this is what I was greeted with...

SNOW!!!

I'm not ready for snow! Don't get me wrong, I do like snow. When I am at home snuggled under a blanket with cookies baking in the oven, or for the holidays, or to play in...I love to go sliding and stuff. But, when life has to resume as normal (work, errands, picking up kids a 100 miles away) with all this very pretty, but also very annoying snow...I don't like it so much! Cleaning off cars, scraping windows, slippery roads, slush, boots, hats.....I HATE IT! I'm just hoping that the winters here in PA are somewhat of an improvement compared to MA. I guess I better get used to it. It looks like winter has arrived!

One Last Stop

Our final visit of the trip was to my Memere and Pepere's house. Memere made me one of my most favorite meals, Fricot (a homemade chicken stew, it's delicious!) and dessert. It was wonderful to see them and have a yummy meal before heading back out on the road.

Thanks everyone for a great visit! We will see you all in just four weeks! Love you!!

Party Time!

The main purpose of our recent trip up to MA was to attend a wedding reception for my cousin, Kelli and here husband Dan. Kelli and Dan were married last month in a private ceremony and had a big party last Saturday night to celebrate. It was such a fun night!

My Mom, my sister Renee, and me..

The bride and groom...

Jamieson was thrilled to see Jake :)

Jamieson dancing with his mom...

Time to have some fun on the dance floor!

And then there are those dreaded good byes :( We won't see Kenzie and Jamieson until December...