Thanksgiving 2012

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!



Johnny, Lila and I headed over to visit his parents and sisters in North Carolina, and then we all went to North Myrtle Beach to meet up with the McDonald extended family.

Including significant others and friends, our family totaled twenty people and two dogs.

Lila loved hanging out with her Aunt Lauren.

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They were best buds



Lila also had fun meeting her great aunts and great uncles.

Johnny's Aunt Margie and Uncle Steven put us all up in their beach house.  And on Thanksgiving everyone (and by everyone I meant everyone but Johnny and me...wa ha ha it all went according to my plan!) chipped in cooking dinner.  His cousin Keaton and Keaton's girlfriend, Cassie, made the AMAZING turkey and Uncle Jack carved it.

I can't even pick a favorite side dish because it was all fantastic...though I did not try the creamed onions.  Maybe next year. 

Lila loved spending time with her Grampie.

And she made some fabulous strides in crawling.  She's almost there!  It helped that she had about nine cheerleaders every time she tried.

Lately, Lila is obsessed with feeling everyone's hair.  She really liked Uncle Keaton's too.

After our few days at the beach house, we stopped at Plantation Pancakes for a last brunch before everyone left.

Grammie took care of feeding Lila.  Her new favorite is pears.

After Lila was done eating, we passed her around, and she ended up sitting like a big girl with Miss Cassie and Uncle Keaton for awhile.

Before coming home to Kansas, we stopped by at the Hutsons' house, and Lila got to hang out with Allie.

Lila loves Allie and kept trying to say "Puh puh" for "puppy."

Allie was a very good sport.

I always love spending time with Johnny's extended family, but it was especially fun this year to meet Suzanne's boyfriend, Alex, and Keaton's girlfriend, Cassie.  It's also nice to get to talk more to Johnny's aunts and uncles and get to know better the people that he loves so much.  Adding a crazy fun baby to the mix doesn't hurt things either.

Home Again Home Again

If you couldn't tell, Johnny and I went out of town for a week for Thanksgiving....and I did nothing about my blog that entire time.  We had a nice little break at his parents' house in North Carolina, but now it's back to the grindstone.  I do want to finish out my month of thankfuls, so here's the blitzkrieg version.

November 22: I am very thankful for safe travel.  Johnny and I had our worst flight ever going into North Carolina.  Not only can I not sit for more than 25 minutes at a time because of some muscle stretching in my back (thanks baby!), but the flight had so much turbulence that we weren't allowed to get out of our seats or get drinks.  I ended up just standing up anyway because I couldn't take it anymore.  Take that Delta.

November 23: A healthy baby is next on the list.  We just had another check up, and everything looks good.  Also, Baby Hutson has decided to move around like a crazy person.  I can lie in bed and watch my stomach move all over the place.  Sometimes I'll feel a little fist or a little foot kicking.  Johnny's side of the family is convinced it's a boy.

November 24: Next, a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We were a small but mighty group of Johnny's parents, his sisters, us, and Ms. Pat.  The day started out with a Turkey Trot that the baby and I watched...

and then later we made candy turkeys...

 and had a yummy dinner.  The turkey turned out great, and Johnny made Brussels sprouts that were all the rage.

November 25: It's definitely hard to be away from my extended family on holidays, so I am very thankful for my mom and how she has always supported us going wherever we wanted for holidays.  I'm thankful also that she took us all to see A Christmas Carol last night at the Missouri Rep.  God bless us! Everyone!

 November 26: I am thankful that I finished all of my Christmas shopping and crafting for the Hutsons before our trip so that we could bring them with us.  My wrapping this year is brown paper, plaid or striped ribbon, and cloth letters mod podged onto the packages.  Thanks Pinterest!

November 27:Even though I didn't get to see any of them this Thanksgiving, this year I am very thankful for my closest friends.  Some of us have been friends since sixth grade, and I'm so glad that we are still involved in each other's lives.

(Sarah M...I think you're usually taking the pictures...)

November 28: I can't forget, of course, to say that I am thankful for you!  When I started writing this blog, Johnny was convinced of two things: #1 That I would never keep up with it and #2 That no one would ever read it.  So thank you for keeping up with the Hutsons and sharing your lives with me through facebook comments as well as comments on here.  

November 29: This was my dad's birthday, so I am very thankful for his life and that it wasn't cut short with his heart attack years ago.  Fifty-one.  He made me promise when Johnny and I got married that he wouldn't be a grandfather until after he turned fifty.  We listened!  Happy Birthday Daddy!

November 30: Finally, I am beyond thankful for this upcoming Christmas season.  I love having time to celebrate Christ's coming to earth to free us from sin and death.  I am so thankful for our new church family at Redeemer Presbyterian and for a husband who is excited to raise our children to know Christ and the bible.

Meriahna and Sydney's Thankfuls

Rachel: So girls, what are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

Sydney: My family!

Meriahna: Cheese!...and polar bears.

Sydney: And penguins.

This Weekend

I got a little behind this weekend on my thankfuls, so I want to catch up as we are approaching Thanksgiving week!

This Friday, I was so thankful for date nights with my husband.  We went out for Thai food and watched It's a Wonderful Life, the second installment of our Christmas Movie weekly watching.

On Saturday, I was extremely thankful that Johnny spent the entire day working on finishing painting the trim.  He finished all the windows and is almost done with the crown molding and the built-ins.  We got one set of curtains hung, and it's starting to look exactly like I wanted.

And finally for today, I am thankful for art.  I bought this print by Matte Stephens a few months ago from etsy and never got it framed until a few days ago.  Johnny and I picked it out together and now it's hanging above our bed; I think it turned out to be really cute.  I definitely recommend www.etsy.com as a great place to get cheap art as well as www.20x200.com.  I've been really pleased with all the pieces I've gotten from both places.

Thursday, November 17

Today I am very thankful for my grandparents on my mom's side.  Papa had a birthday this week, and I'm so thankful that Baby Hutson will get to know his/her great grandparents.  Happy Birthday Papa!

Honesty is the Best Policy?

Today I am thankful for words "out of the mouths of babes"...or at least our of Sydney's mouth.

This morning, while the girls were getting ready for school, I was sitting on the stairs waiting to brush their hair.  Sydney came up and sat down next to me.  She took a long look at me and said, "Well, we're getting a little fat aren't we?"  I responded, "Yes, yes we are."

Later today, after showing Sydney and Meriahna my Christmas cards that I just got in the mail from Shutterfly, Sydney pointed to the picture and said, "That's a great picture! It doesn't make you look that fat!"

I'm not sure when she decided that "You're not fat, you're pregnant!" doesn't apply anymore.  But apparently it doesn't...and I'm going to go eat some Girl Scout Cookies before Johnny gets back from his run.

Monday and Tuesday

What I wanted to write for yesterday...and then forgot to...was that I am very thankful for Winstead's Cherry Limeades!  For those of you who don't live in Kansas, Winstead's is an old restaurant that serves steakburgers, milkshakes, fries, and other heart attack-inducing food items that are so good.  I was frustrated yesterday and went and got a Cherry Limeade, and do you know what? I was in a much better mood after that.

Today I am thankful for new friends.  I am going to a recipe exchange party tonight with the women of our new church.  I am bringing Spiced Pumpkin Bread as well as the recipe for it.  I've tried probably five different pumpkin bread recipes, and with a few tweaks, this one is the best.  I thought you all might like it as well!

Spiced Pumpkin Bread
Adapted from Colonial Cooks!

1 C Sugar (could do less or use part honey)
1/2 C Apple Sauce
2 Eggs, beaten
1 C Canned Pumpkin
1/3 C Apple Cider
1 1/4 C White Flour
3/4 C Whole Wheat Flour
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tsp Salt
1/4 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Allspice
1/2 Tsp Ground Cloves
1 Tsp Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp Nutmeg
1/3 C Chocolate Chips (more or less)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix sugar and apple sauce.  Add eggs, pumpkin, and apple cider.  Mix thoroughly.  In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients and add to pumpkin mixture.  Stir just until moistened.  Add chocolate chips.  Bake in greased bread pan for 1 hr.

Tradition!

Now that the holidays are coming up, I'm getting very excited and thankful for all of the traditions that I had growing up as well as some of the new ones that Johnny and I are starting. Here's a few of my favorites:

On November 1st, my household celebrates Christmas Music Day. On this day and all days after that until Christmas, it is appropriate, nay encouraged, to listen to Christmas tunes.

On Thanksgiving, when we were younger, my cousins and my sister and I would put on plays about the Pilgrims and the Native Americans at the first Thanksgiving. It's very unfortunate that those little gems of performances stopped happening.

Something that I love the most about the holidays is watching Christmas movies.  I have even scheduled all of our favorites on my calendar so that we won't miss any important ones.  Last night, Johnny and I watched The Muppet Christmas Carol while eating pizza for our date night.  So good.



One Christmas tradition that I cannot participate in this year is ice skating on Christmas Eve.  My mom would always take us with our cousins and whoever else was in town, and Melody and I would discuss what Christmas presents we thought we were getting while slowly going around and around and around the rink.

Another Christmas tradition that I think my grandparents started us on was finding the pickle ornament on the Christmas tree, a German tradition...since we have no German blood whatsoever.  But the person who finds it gets whatever money is attached to it.  Jessie usually wins.

Now that kiddos are on the way, Johnny and I are hoping to continue these traditions and add a few of our own as well.  

What holiday traditions do you have?

We Are Family

I am very thankful this Saturday that Johnny and I grew up in such loving, Christ-centered families.  

And now our kids get to have two wonderful sets of grandparents, three aunts, and one really cool uncle...and one nice dog and one dog that will bite them if they sneeze.  We're working on teaching the baby to hold it in.

Thankful Mama

Johnny and I are very thankful today for my big giant belly and what's inside it.  This pregnancy has been especially wonderful and scary since the loss of our first baby, so every day that I feel little kicks and back pain, I am extremely thankful.  Thank you Lord for a healthy baby and our future family.

Two for One

Actually it's more like two for two because I got behind one day.  For Wednesday, I am thankful for crafts. Yes, laugh all you want, but I love having the time and ability to take a bunch of scraps and make something fun, like this wreath.



I took a bunch of scrap fabrics from quilts that I had made (Meriahna and Sydney had fun picking out patterns they recognized from pajamas and quilts that I had made them).  Then I cut the scraps into strips about  1.5in by 5in, give or take.

Using an old wreath frame from Hobby Lobby, I individually tied the strips onto the frame with single knots.

Push all the knots together, and eventually, you get a wreath!



And for November 10, I am thankful for living close to family.  Johnny and I had my cousin Melody and her husband Brett over for dinner last night.  It's really fun to have grown up together and now be living near each other, knowing that our kids will get to grow up together too...though they need to hurry up and have a cousin for Baby Hutson.

November 8 Slightly Late

Hands down, no question, today I am thankful that Johnny's third test is OVER! I'm even more thankful that he felt good about it. So good about it that he went to Trader Joe's and bought some Christmas toffee. Now we just wait eight weeks to get the results...