Thanksgiving 2015

A week before Thanksgiving the youth put on a Thanksgiving Feast for some of the older people in the ward. I had a committee of girls that worked on all aspects of it using it for a project for their Personal Progress Program. 

On the day of the dinner I had a few of them over to make homemade apple pies. 

The dinner turned out great and girls did a great job 

During the break Ashley had a friend over and they we did some Pinterest projects. I've realized Ashley can be crafty but it's on her terms...if I suggest it she doesn't want to do it. 

I thought Cassidy's rainbow version turned out the best!

Thanksgiving was at Jeff's mom's this year. 

It was our first holiday without Rueben and it was bittersweet. We were glad that we could all come up and keep her company. 

The little kid table. It's much so fun having some little ones at family things :)

Jarek and his family were down.

Jenise, Sean and Zander

Tahna and her two daughter-in-laws Vanessa and Darby

The happy newlyweds

Jenae and Vanessa

Lexi and Violet

The boys...Ryan, Jeff, Steve and Kenny

Taylor and Caden

Jacob and Taylor

Our favorite part of the day is playing games which usually end up being Mafia and Signs.

Our gracious host 

(we were so happy to be able to just come and enjoy and not have to host it)

The day after Thanksgiving we went down to San Diego to spend time with my side of the family. 

We started out meeting for lunch and then saying goodbye to Angela and Robert as they went with his family to celebrate another Thanksgiving dinner. 

After they left we went over to Balboa Park and walked around some. I always love Balboa Park. 

The rest of my family went to check in to the hotel and I went with Virginia and Joel's family to the museum of man. 

This was the craziest thing...a real life mummy with the skin and hair still in tact. I guess they found it locally and it was well preserved. 

Dean in the Egyptian room

We got back to the hotel just in time to see the beautiful sunset. 

That night we went to dinner and then saw the comedians from Last Comic Standing with Joel and Virginia.

The next day we went to Tijuana to see the new temple. It was the last weekend of the open house and we had quite a group going. 

We had us, Angela and Robert and Ian, Joel and Virginia and family, Michael Noel who flew in for the day for it and George Medina and his family and Brother-in-law and sister-in-law who were residents of Tijuana.

Being in multiple cars left us waiting for each other a few times. 

Worth the wait. 

The temple was just as beautiful inside as it was outside. 

Love my sisters, just wish all of them could be there. 

Afterward we went to a nearby taco shop that was recommended. Good food!

No pictures! They will love it when all the albums from this time period have pictures like this!

After lunch we went to the beach on Tijuana, ate fresh churros (the best) and walked to the border. 

Fun to stand in Mexico and have part of you in America. 

(The difference in the buildings from one side of the border to the other is crazy)

We made one more stop in Rosarita and Ashley saw this cute horse. The rest of the time was trying to find some of the group that got separated and then spending 3 hours or so trying to cross back over the border. (That was crazy)

This month I worked for a week at the holiday shop at Mark Twain and ended up selling a bunch of the crafts that I stockpiled all year. Nice for extra money at Christmas too.

The first week of December and the season of Christmas starts.

Jeff was out of town for business for a few days and so I was on my own. Ashley wanted to go to the Little People of America Christmas party. Since she was the only one who wanted to go we brought Cassidy along too. 

That night Ashley and I went to the Ward Christmas Party. (Both parties I brought food assignments)

Each table had gingerbread men to decorate. This was ours. 

This week Ashley also had to finish her Science Project. She did taste testing cookies with flavored frosting. She was testing if the color of the frosting affected how people though it tasted. 

The problem was we had 45-50 people she could use at Thanksgiving and we made all these cookies so she could have people taste test. She only asked like 6 people and the rest of these went into the trash and we had to remake the cookies later to be able to finish her experiment ;(

Will procrastinating teens ever learn???

At least it's done!