Late for (My Recap of Thanksgiving) Dinner

Better late than never, a recap of our 2012 Turkey Day...

In what has now become a fun tradition, we loaded up Grandpa's sleigh Odyssey on Thanksgiving morning and headed over the rivers and through the woods of New England to Noni and Papi's house.  Although some might complain about spending 5+ hours in the third row of a minivan with her mother-in-law, I must say that I honest-to-god love it.  While the (big) boys take the wheel, we sit back and chat, read the paper, snooze (for a few seconds godforbid), fetch fallen snacks/books/loveys, and respond to many, many requests for "another movie" (ok, maybe I don't love those last two bits).  We make our annual Thanksgiving pilgrimage to Mickey D's, usually at the Charlton Plaza on the Mass Pike.  But this year, we found this instead:

Oh boy oh boy oh boy.  Talk about a silver lining to some traffic on the Pike - Google maps took us on a detour that lead us right to this baby's front doorstep.  And since most people don't consider a Big Mac to be part of their Thanksgiving menu, the playspace was completely deserted.  (This place was so loved that we made another stop on our return trip, when it was much more crowded.  Not as big a fan when there are kids snotting and hacking all over the equipment - serious heebeegeebees for this girl who is normally unfazed by germs.)

Anyhoo, we made it to Stamford mid-afternoon, ready to get the rest of our wiggles out on that fantastic swingset right across the street...

Oh wait...Sandy was here.  I wish I had a "before" picture of my parents' block so you could see the difference - it is truly quite amazing.  The good news is that little boys don't need swingsets to make them happy - any ol' dirt pile will do!  We spent probably a full hour exploring this dirt pile on Friday morning, when we (again) attempted to visit a playground that is just gone.

But back to Thursday...the best part of traveling on Thanksgiving itself is not the lighter traffic but the fact that you arrive just in time for cocktails and the prep has all happened without you!  We had a lovely dinner, as always, and thoroughly enjoyed Noni and Papi's fabulous cooking.

The hosts and their beautiful table

My boys will not sit still and pose for a picture.  Ever.  Especially when they look adorable in sweater vests.  For this I am not thankful.

Paul and Lori and their "life-changing" mashed potatoes

The boys and I made these placecards.  In retrospect, we should have used frosting on the marshmallows instead of paint - one unsuspecting guest got an unsavory awakening when she assumed the whole thing was edible.

And one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving, is that the holiday falls on the first day, and then you have the whole rest of the long weekend to just relax and be together.  We spent Friday morning enjoying the amazing beach weather before stuffing our faces at a local burger joint.  

Noni took a much-deserved nap in the sun while the boys played.  I think "Sand"y was appropriately named - don't you?

Little boys are happiest when they're with their grandfathers.  A double dose of grandpa is particularly smile-inducing.

And where there's a Papi, there's a sand sculpture.

While I did a little Black Friday economy-boosting with my mom and mom-in-law, the folks at home were busy crafting costumes for a 5k we ran Saturday morning.

Despite the strong headwind, I swear these turkey feathers made us super fast.  It was a little hard to breathe with our beaks on, so we left those with the spectators.

And then, of course, there was more face-stuffing.  I do love me some Thanksgiving leftovers.

A very VERY excited big boy who got to stay up and eat with the grown-ups while his little brother was in bed

And now onward to the next big event!  Only 18 more days and you can bet that we're counting.