Thanksgiving

I decided to put our Polar Express experience with the Thanksgiving pictures (even though it was one of our main Christmas gifts) because we actually rode it the day before Thanksgiving when all of the Johnsons were together.  The kids knew we had a surprise for them, that it was part of Christmas, and that it was big, but they had such a hard time guessing what it was.  We picked them up after school (early out day) and drove a couple hours, which was rough because Camille wasn't feeling very well. But eventually we made it to Williams (right by the Grand Canyon) and their guesses started to include trains.  We prompted, "What kind of trains?"  And, "Why do you think you see so many kids around in their pajamas?"  But they still didn't catch on, surprisingly, because we had just watched the movie with them a few days earlier.  Finally when we entered the gift shop they all knew and were so excited, and that was definitely one of those so-worth-it parenting experiences.  We have been wanting to ride it for years.  Trains were Bryce's main obsession as a toddler and preschooler and he would watch Polar Express all year (which made us crazy).  He called it Po-er Eck-wah.  Now Gabe and Camille love trains, although not as much as Bryce, and we decided we did NOT want to miss out on this little kid window that is so magical.

Here is everyone taking pictures with Mrs. Clause, and listening to her tell us about the cookies she baked just for us for the train ride.

Meeting up with the cousins was so exciting as they were just all figuring it out as well.  We also met up with Greg, Nickelle and Macie, and Neil right after this picture.

It's so fun to watch them get older and gain more independence.  For the first little while on the train the older kids didn't even know their parents were there.  They were cute with Gabe, too.  He is on his own age-wise, and in an awkward spot fitting in just a bit better with the baby group but starting to morph into the big kid group.

This was our cute host/chef and all the guys.

The Aprils together, of course.

Santa's village.

Santa handed out bells.

And there is Camille hugging Santa.  I can't understand for the life of me how she can be so afraid of my friends and so trusting of this big, loud, stranger.

This was Thanksgiving day.  I usually host Thanksgiving for whatever friends and family make it down to our beautiful AZ  in November, and I've gotten quite confidant in my turkey-cooking skills...but I was really happy to pass the torch to Christy this year now that she lives in Glendale!  Especially not really knowing how I was going to feel at that time with the morning sickness. At the feast we had our family, Neil, Greg's family, and my parents.  It made the hugest difference in the world to have three kitchens combining the courses.  Usually we have lots of people, but only 4 burners and one stove and we end up cooking from early in the morning until late in the afternoon.  Christy had the tables decorated beautifully (never my forte) and somehow I didn't take a picture!

But I did get these gems:

I'm not even sure how this started, but I'm pretty sure it was about as juvenile as a double-dog-dare.  The guys and the oldest cousins took a plunge into the freezing cold pool!  November goes back and forth between being beautiful and being chilly, and this was a very-chilly-for-AZ kind of day!

Brynn jumped twice...

Bryce waded in about half-way.  Crazies.

We played a lot of football.  Brynn's trying really hard to accept that she's going to have to do boy things with all of her boy cousins, just like I did, and she is loving having them around.  It doesn't hurt that they totally treat her like gold.

We also had a game night with EVERYONE staying at our house and it was pretty much the best night ever.  When I first joined the Johnson family, we would all get together and play board games into the night and my new sister and brothers would make me laugh until my stomach was sore.  Then we moved to AZ, we each had a couple of kids, but we kept up game nights when we'd stay with Kelly and Christy to visit.  Now we all have LOTS of kids when we get together and game nights are hard to come by.  I love that we were able to manage it.  It was a really great Thanksgiving break.