Gingerbread houses & Fondue

The kids started out on decorating the gingerbread house for this year.

We decided to try out fondue for dinner.  We did a cheese and a meat fondue.  Fortunately, our kids didn't know that chocolate fondue was a thing yet, so we somehow got away with only two courses.

It was a huge hit.

Breakfast with the cousins

Brian & Sandi were still in-town for Thanksgiving, so we went and had brunch at Grandma's house.

Time to get the tree!

It's one of my favorite days of the year!  I love going up to Pilchuck and getting our tree, then going out for breakfast after.

Dad, Kathy, & Jared joined us as well.

This year we were big spenders and paid the extra $5 to get the tree shaken and bundled, I don't think we'll be going back.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's Thanksgiving!

Every year, I force the whole family to dress up and we take our family photos for the Christmas card.  Then, traditionally I put my camera down and forget to take any photos at all for the rest of the day.  Today wasn't all too different.

But, we had a great time for Thanksgiving.  This year, we had both Kruger & Hamilton families as well as some friends.  I can't remember the final number, it was somewhere in the 30's?  I don't know, but I was grateful for the THREE sets of china plates we own (and our new WORKING dishwasher).

Thanksgiving prep

I tried something new this year and went with a dry-brine for the turkey.  It takes several days longer than the wet brine, but it was so much less messy.  Fortunately, I was warned that it makes a super salty gravy, so I bought some gravy at Costco and it turned out great!

The night before Thanksgiving we met our small group friends to help make up a meal for a group home near us.  It was really fun to get together with the group, and help our kids see that there are people outside of their little circles who are in need.

Also, this year, I made the stuffing in the crock pot, it turned out great and took one more thing on my "needs oven space" list.

Time for a party!

We wanted to have an Oktoberfest party this year, but somehow we ran out of October.  It was too late for Oktoberfest, too early for a Holiday party, so we had a pre-holiday party.

Cecily was at Fiona's house for a birthday party sleep-over, so we had to figure out what to do with Parker.  We figured we could send him to Samuel's house, but we wanted his parent to come to our party, so we invited Samuel over for the party.  The boys set-up shop downstairs, ate pizza, and played video games all evening.  They had a blast, and because they are two angels on earth, went straight to bed when we told them to.

A great party was enjoyed by all.

Reading

Weekend getaway

We needed a break, so I went on Groupon and found a deal on a random hotel in Silverdale.  It was so great to get away and spend some time together as a family.  (Editor's note: as I write this on day 14,000 of COVID-19 quarantine, my past self apologies to my current self for thinking that going to a soccer game every weekend was some sort of huge hardship)

The kids LOVED the free breakfast and the swimming pool.  Months later, they still talk all the time about "when we went to the Best Western Plus".  Seriously, I have heard them say "Best Western Plus" more times than I have heard them say "Walt Disney World"

The hotel is right on this little inlet, so we wandered down the waterfront and threw rocks in the water.

On Saturday, we drove to Poulsbo to wander around town.

This is how we dressed to go to dinner, we're fancy in this house.