Thanksgiving!

I can't believe how fast this month has gone by! It seemed to zoom by, and I didn't get time to watch leaves change or wonder where the snow is. It finally snowed and stuck over night on Sunday night which was not fun to drive in. It has of course melted.


On another note, Ski and I took a vacation to visit our family. We of course drove since it is more economical. We made our first official stop in Iowa to see my grandma. It was wonderful I couldn't have been more stoked to see her! She moved into this great house apartment that is big and comfy for her. She has a huge yard to garden in and a huge kitchen to cook in. Those are her two all time favorite things! My grandma's house has always been a second home. When she moved to Iowa she moved into a small apartment that didn't feel like home for me or her. Now she has this amazing place and it feels, and smells like my childhood secondary home. She had decorated for Christmas for me, she set up her villages which I just loved to play with when I was little and her tree. We celebrated Christmas and Thanksgiving with her. She took us to this little town called Galena, IL since she lives on the edge of the Mississippi river and it's a 15 min drive to IL. I loved the little town it was so cozy feeling. We spent five days with her, saying goodbye was the hardest to do, but I will see her next year and that is what I have to look forward to!


Once we left Iowa we set out to Illinois to see Ski's family.Our first stop was to see his sister and celebrate Christmas with them. The first night we stayed at his sisters house which was nice, I felt really bad for making them sleep on the floor with their three old son. The second night we went and stayed with his mom, which to me was frightening. We stayed in the basement which was pretty much covered in spider webs. The last three nights we were in town we stayed in a hotel and it actually felt like a vacation. I spent as much time as I could with my niece since she has been going through a rough patch in her young life. She is just amazing, smart as can be and very fragile. I feel when we go and see his family all we are doing is running around to make sure we see everyone there is to see. Usually we can't see all of the family, but we see the ones that make the effort to see us in return. We had two Thanksgiving's there one with his dad and one with his mom. It was very busy and overwhelming, by the time I got to the hotel I was not only stuffed like a turkey by so sleepy I just stared at the TV for about two hours before realizing we had to get up early to leave.


Here is a slide of our adventures in Iowa and Illinois.