Thanksgiving!

Last Saturday Guy took Nico to get a hair cut. He took him to the same place he goes to get his hair and beard cut, the Beardsmith. Nico got a cut called "The Good Boy", which he really really likes. Guy also picked him up some pomade. The part in his hair is a "hard part" which means they actually shaved a small strip of his hair where the part is, so the part is easy to find. This really has made it easier to part his hair.

This is what he looked like when he came home. He didn't want to pose for a picture so I caught him while he was playing with his legos (see the fire truck go zoooooooom on the floor).

That evening we had pizza with Jeff and Allicia and crew. Allicia has been gluten free for a while now so we made her crust for her, and they made Guy's crust for him since he can eat gluten. They had a whole bunch of personal pan pizza crusts they had baked up, so Guy was able to eat several different ones with different toppings and he said it was awesome to be able to do that. We had so many more toppings than usual. I stuck with a cheese pizza and Nico prefers just meat on his. Pepperoni and sausage. But we have noticed a trend, that Nico doesn't eat much when there's exciting things going on.

After pizza, Guy gave Jeff and Allicia each half a pumpkin roll that Grandma Russell had made and sent to us. They were so happy about that! Then we descended to the basement to watch part of an episode of Charlie Brown. 

On Tuesday we spent the day at the Salisbury house. Bruce and Rory were there for Nico to play with, and Grandma Salisbury and I cooked a turkey and made a few of the salads for Thanksgiving. In the afternoon when Papa was done working, we started watching Star Wars: A New Hope and Nico was interested for about 15 minutes before he went into the other room. He loves the Star Wars characters but he has never seen the movies, someday he will!

Getting ready to watch Star Wars

Playing legos with Bruce

It was a full and fun day. Guy joined us after work for dinner and then we headed home.

Wednesday was a day full of cooking for me. I made the stuffing, 2 pies, and deviled eggs. Guy wasn't here to taste test the stuffing so I sent him a picture of it and asked for a virtual taste test. He responded "😋  I can run home real quick. It's basically and emergency." Hehe. He didn't run home, and the stuffing turned out fine!

Thursday we headed over to the Salisbury house early. I started the sauerkraut and pork in the crock pot right away, and then we spent the morning slowly getting everything ready for the meal at 2pm. Guy turned on the MST3K Turkey Day Marathon for everyone in the living room. That was a hit!

When it was time to eat, Pa gave a short devotional about being thankful, then we each went around the table saying something we were thankful for. Most everyone said they were thankful for family. Guy said he was thankful for family, and for his job and his boss. Nico said he was thankful for his mommy 😍. 

After the meal was over, Grandma sent everyone out of the room except for the parents (me and Guy plus all my brothers and their wives) so that we could do the Lego Challenge. Grandma and Pa and Wanda (Alanna's mom) and the grandkids were going to go clean up the kitchen. Grandma gave each of us a lego that could be built into 3 different legos. After we built one of them, we had to take a picture of it, then take it apart and build the next one, etc. Guy and I won 1st place! Our prize was a light you can shine on your house that displays swirling snowflakes.

Here we are with the last lego we put together, a flying robot.

Left to right: Jeremy, Bambi, Guy, Joanna, David, Jill, Alanna, Jonny

Rory, Lily, Lexie, Nico

Rory and Nico

Playing baseball in the backyard with cousins and Papa

After the Lego challenge, we gathered in the living room to play games. 1 - Ornament exchange 2 - Treasure hunt 3 - Unwrap challenge.  The unwrap challenge required everyone to take turns wearing gloves and spending 15 seconds trying to unwrap this huge present. Whoever got to the middle first won the present. Inside that huge box was an iTunes Gift Card and Bambi won it! Watch the video at the end to see Guy and Nico both take turns trying to open it!

After games, we ate dessert, then we all started packing up leftovers and heading home. The grandkids all stayed overnight last night and will stay overnight again tonight, so we said goodbye to Nico and headed home! When we got home, we showed our snowflake light to Jeff and Allicia, and Ivy who was still up. Ivy rolled around in the lights for a good while while we chatted.

Nico has been having tummy aches, presumably from all the sugar we recently introduced into his life? They are not "sick" tummy aches, they are "pain" tummy aches. I am hoping to get a handle on them. He seems to be much better when he doesn't eat sugar. He doesn't eat a lot of the stuff anyway, but I think his body is just not used to it! 

Here's the video of the unwrap challenge!