Thanksgiving!

We had yet another Soelberg-Wells combination Thanksgiving this year, and I think it may just have been the best yet.  Let me count out the ways that I am thankful for these delightful friends who feast with us again and again.  

1.  Craftiness!  Sara and I love to make Thanksgiving weekend into Craft-aholic Central, and this year, we made these creations out of scrapbook paper and posterboard.  (Tip for those who might want to make some for themselves:  We used a Cricut to cut out the gazillions of little shapes (wonky hearts on the "George" cartridge), and 59-cent posterboard to make the base cones instead of the $8.00 paper-mache Christmas trees originally called for.)

 2.  Billions of little girls.  (This picture is even missing the smallest one.)  It's like heaven for my girls when Libby and Jenna arrive, and the visit is full of giggles, dress-ups, reading parties (I'm not kidding), clothes-sharing, dancing, and zippie pajamas.  And you see that darling Jenna girl up with Mimi?  That little girl is so incredibly kind to annoying, destructive Bella.  It nearly brought me to tears to see her include a not-so-fun two-year old in all the fun activities.  I will love her forever.

 3.  Joe.  Being Maddie's hair twin, we would love him regardless, but any guy who will watch five little girls (John was on call--as always) so Sara and I could Black-Friday it up is fantastic.  Thanks again, Joe!

 4.  And speaking of Black Friday, I'm grateful for Menard's.  Menard's, of all places.  I don't even think I've ever checked the Menard's ad for Black Friday specials before this year, but I'm apparently the only one who hadn't gotten the memo.  This year, when we showed up 30 minutes early (with Maddies in the front carrier, deep in the depths of my parka), the line to get into Menard's stretched across the front of the store and up to the back of the parking lot.  Our buddies in line included a darling woman who had been shopping since midnight and the foulest-mouthed long-haired lady I've ever met.  She dropped the f-bomb more often than I use hand gestures, and that's saying something.  Also, unpictured is our annual trip to Jo-Ann fabric for $1.29/yard flannel.  My stash is restocked, thank heavens.  I get twitchy when it gets a little low.

 5. Tangled.  Have you all seen it?  It's maybe my new favorite Disney princess movie.  I loved it.

 6.  (On that same note) Wonderland Cinema in Niles.  I love our little theatre just 15 minutes away with $2.50 matinee tickets (but we went during "prime time", so we had to pay a full $5.00) and $1.25 popcorn.  Amazing.  It's possible for us to go to movies on opening day.  And could we resist hitting a movie about a girl with long-long hair when we had our resident Rapunzel (Libby-girl) in town for a visit?  Look at those darling girls.

7.  Edible name tags.  This is a pilgrim hat, even though it's not immediately obvious.  The making of them involved four little girls and two moms elbow deep in melted chocolate, a container of mini M&Ms studding the outsides ("I don't want just one buckle, Mom.  I want mine to be polka-dots!"), and seven chocolate footprints made by one desperate two-year old.  But they turned out pretty cute, I think.

 8.  A delicious feast with fantastic friends.  I wish I'd taken a picture of all the food, and not just Sara's amazing rolls, but it may have been our best yet.  The stuffing was perfect (even following a near-fiasco), the gravy was not crazy salty (I've learned my lesson), and the pie was plentiful.

9.  Sara's pictures which I stole from her blog.  Thank you, Sara, for always having your camera at the ready. I was embarrassed to see that I had taken two pictures the entire visit.

What are we going to do next year when the Soelbergs don't live just 4 hours away?