Thanksgiving Weekend 2009

We hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house. It was the fourth year in a row that we've hosted. Grandma Hallstrom helped a ton. She brought some extra chairs, a table cloth, fancy china, silverware, and goblets, and lots of food. Our guests were: Grandma Hallstrom, Joyce Jacobs (Grandma's friend), Uncle Calvin, Nathan (my cousin), Amy (my sister), Mike (Amy's boyfriend), and Laura (my sister). It was fun being together as a family. The meal was so tasty and definitely worth all the time in the kitchen. We were in charge of the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, drinks, corn, and a dessert. For dessert, Grandma made two apple pies and Sam and I made a pumpkin roll. Here's a picture of most of us enjoying a conversation over dessert:After dinner, we enjoyed a power point presentation by Nathan. Sam hooked up Nathan's laptop to our big tv so we could see larger pictures. This past July, Nathan returned home from a mission to Mozambique. He is a funny guy and told us about the culture in Mozambique as well as several mission stories. After the presentation, we enjoyed our dessert and then presented Grandma Hallstrom with a few early Christmas presents. The gifts were from her whole family and I put the gifts together. You can enjoy the video a little later once I get it posted:

In addition to the large collage frame full of family pictures, I made Grandma a scrapbook version of family photos. I also created a slideshow of family photos that I posted on my blog recently. Grandma was very touched by the gifts and can't wait to get the collage frame hung on her wall.

After our boys went to bed, we rearranged the furniture in the family room and Sam set up our Christmas tree. Then, Sam and I watched the new Pixar movie, 'Up' with Laura and Nathan. It was my first time seeing that movie. I enjoyed it. I could tell that the people who created the movie had big imaginations. Laura, Nathan, and Amy spent the night.

The next morning, I did a portrait photo shoot of Amy. My Mom wanted a good picture of Amy to hang on her mantle above her fireplace. Here are some of my favorite photos I got of Amy:

Amy and I stopped by for a quick bite to eat at McDonald's. We had chicken nuggets and chocolate milkshakes. It was fun to hang out with my sister.

Like last year, Laura is performing in the church production, "Savior of the World." Sam and I were lucky enough to get to see Laura in the play over Thanksgiving weekend. We drove Laura back for her Friday night performance. Sam and I were lucky enough to get standby tickets and awesome seats (3rd row from the front on the left hand side of the theater). I was hoping Laura would look out into the audience and see us. At the very end of the show, Laura glanced over and gave me a big smile. It's such a great show! We wandered over to Temple Square and saw all the Christmas lights before heading home. Thank you, Amy and Mike for babysitting for us!

On Saturday night, I hung out with my second cousin, Angela. She lives in the same town as me. I picked her up and we headed off to see the new movie, 'The Blind Side.' We arrived at the theater and found out that the tickets were sold out. So we went to another theater. The movie was sold out there too. We purchased some tickets for the 9:45pm show and did a little Christmas shopping for a couple hours.

On Sunday evening, I went on my date with Brian. The two of us drove to Layton to visit my cousin Jerry's family and my cousin David's family (who were visiting from Arizona). Brian loves playing with Jerry's son, Hunter. Hunter and Brian are only 10 days apart in age. Brian wasn't as interested in playing with Hunter this time. He was more interested in the food and the fancy bathrooms they had. Oh well. I had fun catching up with my cousins. The last time I'd seen my cousin David was in 1998 at the Van Wie Farm in New York. Anyway, here is a picture of the Van Wie Cousin Reunion of 2009:

Jerry & Marla's kids with their Arizona cousins

David, Amy, Lisa, Jerry