Thanksgiving in Washington

For Thanksgiving this year we drove from Idaho 14ish hours to my parent's house in Washington. We were nervous about driving that long with the kids but they did FANTASTIC! We debated stopping halfway for a night but the kids rode so well that we didn't have to. (We left on Saturday morning at 4 am and got to my parent's house around 6 pm I think. On the way home we left at 5 am and got here to Idaho just after 8 pm.) Honestly I think Jesse and I did more whining about being hungry and tired than they did. We put Zeke in charge of when we stopped. If he cried, we found the nearest rest stop and fed/pottied everyone. Like I said in an earlier entry, Rosalee was able to stay dry all the way to my parent's and home again. She now only has an accident every 3-5 days so we're very happy for her.
My Aunt Billie from Mississippi came up and stayed with my parents for a few days. She slept in my old bed and shared a room with Rosalee. I was afraid Rosalee would keep her up all night but I guess she'd sing a little and then go to sleep. The only time she'd get upset is if the cat wasn't sleeping on her bed. It was great being able to see my family for a whole week!
My parents don't have kids around the house ever so it was interesting trying to find Rosalee safe activities and toys. One of the things she got a huge kick out of was this marble chime that we got several years ago. She would sit and play with it for quite a bit of time. I'm sorry that the video is hard to see but the lighting is poor and someone who I will call J James, or Jesse J, kept walking in front of the light!

Another fun thing Rosalee got to do was help with the cooking. She really enjoys helping us pour and stir mixes. My dad told her that he would make cookies with her so I went to the store and bought all the supplies for oatmeal raisin cookies. My dad called me from work in the afternoon to tell me that he was on his way home. He said he told his boss that if there wasn't anything immediate or important for him to do than he was going home "to make oatmeal cookies with my granddaughter." This might not seem like a lot but for my dad to say this says a lot to me.
It just wonderful to see how much fun he had with Rosalee making the cookies. At the end of the week he ever asked, "Can't you stay for another week?"

While Rosalee make cookies with her dad and grandpa, Zeke hung out with Billie and me. He was having fun having someone to talk to him and smile at him.
You may notice that my mom isn't in the pictures and stories. Just a few weeks ago she hurt her back (she has a bulging disc) so she had to spent a lot of time lying in bed with ice and pain medicine. Rosalee would go upstairs and lie in bed with her watching cartoons. She did come down and spend time with us, when she could, but that was never when I had the camera out sadly. One day she went with my brother, aunt, Zeke, and me to see the movie New Moon but it would have been weird to start snapping pictures of us with shirtless wolf boys in the background.

We brought Zeke's basinet and Rosalee ended up using it more than he did! She made a bed for herself, and her babies, to watch movies in. This is how she waited for the cookies to be down cooking... snuggling Animal watching Tinkerbell.

On the 25th we had an early Christmas morning. Again I didn't get a picture of my mom but I promise she was there AND that she got gifts! My parents got a DVD each for the kids (Bolt and a live Peter Pan) and the Holiday Inn DVD for us. (Oh how I love Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby!) We have a family joke about my brother and getting bacon for Christmas. Normally we just get him a slab of bacon every year but this year we decided to step it up a notch. We got him bacon soap, bacon dental floss, bacon mints, and a bacon cookbook. I also got him a Doctor Who cookbook that he LOVES and kept reading while we were there. I tried the bacon mints and they were odd tasting. It was like eating bacon right after brushing your teeth... Dad got Doctor Who and Torchwood DVDs (My family has an addiction to British SciFi) as well as some new thermal shirts. As you can tell by the crazy look on his face, he was excited.

The kids got my aunt some outdoor Mississippi books for her to use. She really likes being outside (Can you blame her? It's 65 degrees on Christmas there!) and working on gardens so I thought these would come in handy.

Normally I take several pictures of the food, us cooking, etc. but I was too busy cooking and stuffing myself to grab the camera this year. I guess that's just a sign of great food! We had homemade eggnog, ham and asparagus wraps, deviled eggs, salmon chips, lamb, turkey and stuffing, shredded carrots in orange jello, twice baked potatoes, pumpkin pie, chocolate pumpkin pie, chocolate pumpkin cheesecake, and pineapple pie. My dad's other sister Claudia came out as well as my mom's older brother Pat. After eating we played bottle pool and surprisingly I won! Then my Aunt Billie went home with my Aunt Claudia to spend a few days with her. Rosalee was sad after she left. When I put her to bed that night she kept asking for Billie to snuggle her. I guess we'll just have to go down to Mississippi and visit her!

The last time I went to my parent's house I brought them Rosalee's cat. Here is Koshka (the Russian word for cat) sleeping on our dining room table. Rosalee loves having a cat to snuggle with at the farm and Jesse enjoys not having to be sick because the cat lives with us.

My mom and I went to the feed store and they had a Christmas display, cider, and chili. I wasn't sure how Rosalee would react to Santa but she climbed up on his lap, took the candy cane, and kind of talked to him. It's funny to see her quiet around people because that IS NOT how she normally is!

While Jesse played pool he turned on some jazz music. I didn't grab the camera fast enough to get a good video, but here is some Daddy-Daughter dancing.