The Long Thanksgiving weekend

I have so much in my life to be thankful for. My children. My health. My family. My church. My job(s). My life. This past Thanksgiving was about spending time with family. It was so nice!

We started out Thursday traveling to my aunt's house on my dad's side. She has a big woods behind her house that is a nature preserve so after we ate and cleaned up we went for a walk out there. It was a perfect day for it. I took a bunch of pictures with my cell phone (translation=sucky pictures). I debated about bringing my camera but figured we wouldn't have time to do anything outside the house anyway. I was wrong. Sad face.




Later in the afternoon we headed over to my mom's place to feast on a turkey, pork roast, potatoes, yams, cranberries, gravy, pies, etc. It was delicious and I suffered from a food coma the rest of the evening. It was really nice to visit with everyone though. My aunt M. and her family came (my aunt M. is the one who traveled to Vietnam with me). My brother and his family were there too. My niece is getting so big. Again, no camera. I stink!

Friday was a do nothing day. Hollywood's best friend came over to spend the night...I made pho. It was an all day ordeal.

The ingredients:

The fixings to go with it:

And the finished product:

I'll be honest. It was delicious BUT it was way too expensive with all that meat/bones. I also made a big mistake. It said to cook it for a minimum of 6 hours, but I fell asleep on the couch with Lil Bro for an hour (so it cooked for 7 hours) and when I woke up there was hardly any broth left. It had boiled off. To the point that there was not enough left. I was disappointed to say the least. Plus you take out all of the bones and meat it was cooked with - seems like such a waste of all that expensive meat. I would have come out ahead had I just make the couple hour round trip drive to go eat it somewhere. That will be the last time I make it that way. It was fun for all of us though to eat it and the kids all liked it. Except my 100% Vietnamese child. He wouldn't touch it or even try it. LMAO.

I wanted to put up the Christmas tree but we never got around to it. Saturday we went to see a movie and Sunday we went for a walk. Here are some pictures from that. Hollywood's mama cat followed us the whole way (like a dog) and back.

Another random photo:

This pictures cracks me up for 2 reasons...one the kitten just stayed on her shoulder forever and eventually fell asleep there. Secondly - Lil Brother is playing Mario Cart on the Wii. He mastered that skill over the holiday weekend. That boy can drive! With little instruction from Hollywood, he picked it right up.

He amazes me. This evening when I was on the computer he came and sat next to me with his "Angry Birds notebook" and grabbed a pencil and quizzed me on how to spell various things. He can write really well. He asked me to spell words (so he could write them in his notebook) that started with "V" and then "U" and thought it was hilarious when he wrote "underwear". He also asked me to spell the character's names from Veggie Tales. He is so thirsty for knowledge. I just love it. He asks me to look stuff up on the computer for him - like the names I didn't know. He asks me to print Angry Bird coloring pages out for him too. He loves it when we draw the birds for him to color. I SUCK at drawing, but luckily they are pretty easy.

He's 3 1/2. If he already knows how to write...what is he going to know by the time he starts kindergarten?

He's so full of life, love, and personality. He is simply amazing. How could I have gotten so lucky? I think of the path that both of our lives were on before we met...me a single mom from a small town in the Midwest...him an orphan from a poor city in Vietnam...somehow fate brought me to him and him to me. He is the greatest gift I could have ever wished for. He makes my heart happy and I hope I have the same effect on him.