Our wonderful Thanksgiving

Before it's December already, I need to blog about our wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!  It started at Christine (Tom's sister) and Jim's new home, where they hosted 35 people...maybe more.  It was so nice to get together with everyone in a house that could easily host that many people (we've hosted fewer people than that and it was too tight).  Something about having a big family all together at once just makes me feel warm and cozy.

Here are Lukas and Konrad running through the house with toilet-paper-roll trumpets.  You didn't know toilet-paper-roll trumpets are a part of Thanksgiving tradition?  Neither did I.

Natalie sure had a lot of appetizers before the main turkey dinner...which is why she didn't eat much turkey.  That, and she prefers crackers and apparently babaganoush to turkey!

In the early evening, we packed up and drove to my sister, Rose and her husband Gary's home in the mountains.  Tom finally got to put those tire chains that we had bought last year on his van.  He was in his element, driving the last 45 minutes on snow.  Gary and Rose had received about 3 feet of snow several days before we arrived, and it hadn't gotten warm enough to thaw at all.  Konrad's first comment as he awoke to snow when I carried him out of the van at 10 p.m. was, "There's snow everywhere!"  You have to remember that this is only the second time he's ever seen snow (poor, deprived Southern California boy!)

Lukas ate a lot of snow on this trip.  He said it was clean...Tom and I tried to explain how snow always has some dirt in it...but Lukas kept eating snow.

There were icicles everywhere, including some rather large ones!

On our first hike together, we chose a road that had been plowed, so we wouldn't have to tromp through fresh snow and maybe misplace a child.

Dominik was enjoying the view...on the rare occasion that his hat wasn't turned to cover his face.

Natalie did a great job walking.  We think she walked about a mile all by herself!

Gary and Rose made snow angels.  They're not just for kids!

We tried to get a family shot, but forgot to help Konrad to the spot we had chosen.  It took a while for him to tromp through the fresh snow to get there.

 But he finally made it.

 Even if his hat came off.

When Natalie wouldn't walk any more, Tom carried her in this position, which she actually enjoys.

Natalie has a wonderful Dad!

Konrad made it to the top of a snow plow hill.

Lukas insisted he was hot, so he put his head in the snow.

Of course, whatever Lukas does, Konrad must copy, so he put snow on his head.

Those wild and crazy boys.

I couldn't see Dominik's expression the whole hike, but here it looks like he wasn't enjoying it as much as at the first.

Then even more snow fell from the sky, so the boys had to go play in this new experience.  And eat snow.  Again.

It wasn't only about the snow...Lukas read a book to the other kids.

Natalie and Konrad hugged each other a lot.  They used to do this more, but had stopped...then started doing it a lot on the trip.  Maybe it's because of their winter coats?  Anyway, I didn't capture them hugging on still camera (just video) but this is still a cute shot.

Cute little girl in a winter wonderland.

Warm and happy baby!

Lukas had a face plant at the end of his sled run.

Tom is once again showing his age by making the boys an E.T. snowman.

Gary is giving Dominik his favorite activity:  looking in the mirror.

And then sadly we had to return to the real world:  jobs, school, routine.  But we have great memories of snow at Thanksgiving and wonderful conversations with our family.