Ten Reasons Why Thanksgiving was Awesome!

Thanksgiving was so awesome this year. I LOVE my in-laws and they were in town with us! :) Here are ten reasons that this year ranks as probably the best ever!

1. LD had the cutest smile for Papi O....complete with a black bean beard and black bean hairgel!
2. It was just the seven of us for Thanksgiving: I was on my feet literally from 8 am to 5 pm cooking, but there was no stress of a time limit....just cooking. --sigh-- so low stress. :) Thanks to Mami R. for all her help!
3. C did an amazing karate demonstration for the family. His instructor was right...put on the pads and he turns into an animal.
4. We enjoyed the perfect weather the first few days with a gorgeous hike in the great outdoors.
5. We froze (my poor Southern body--you'd never know I grew up in Colorado--I freeze at 50 degrees) together with a front row seat at the parade of lights.
6. K was the beauty of the week with her gorgeous hair and awesome photo poses.
7. DH was off Wed-Sun! :) Hurray for family time.
8. Mami R. and Papi O. are so loving and sweet and great advise givers, as good parents should be! How blessed I feel to have them as my "parents!"
9. Papi O. cleaned and did projects around the house that I hadn't been able to get to! Thank-you, Papi!
10. I biffed it in the water gardens after church yesterday! It was hilarious...but I have a bruise 4" x 3" on my knee! Yuck. At least we will all remember it together. (Maybe not an "awesome" moment, but a memorable one, at least!)

• Bonus: The food was outstanding! We had such a great time eating together (but I gained like 5 pounds!)
• Bonus #2: LD missed his siblings so much that he asked for them all day long today. When we finally drove up to the school to pick them up, he shouted "Yay! Yay! Yay! K and C! Yay! Yay! Yay!"
• Bonus #3: After Thanksgiving sales were soooooooooo awesome and we got such great deals. Hurray! (Also low stress...we didn't have anything on our "list" that we couldn't live without so we were just enjoying the excitement....and we left at 6:15, not earlier!)

We definitely had a great time together. I am so blessed to have in-laws that I love so much. I cried and cried and cried as they left this morning. Back to one of my favorite quotes ..."The pain now is part of the happiness then." So true.

(Hopefully pictures are coming! They didn't work for me today.)