The Thanksgiving That Never Ends...

11/23-11/27/11

Wednesday:

JARED’S HOME!!!!  Yeah!  I know it’s only been like 2 weeks…but I love my brother so much and I love when he comes home!!!  He hit up Nellies tonight so I didn’t spend too much time with him…but I knew we’d have lots of family time coming up so it wasn’t a big deal!  He caught up with a bunch of friends…and then he got to crash at my place…since it’s walking distance to the bar…so it was really a win-win situation!  YEAH!!!

A small portion of the baking I did for the weekend...in the end I made 24 turkey cookies, cranberry dessert, mashed potatoes, and 4 pies!!!!  I was a baking machine!  :)

Thursday:

Happy Turkey Day!  We started our morning off with a nice little Turkey Trot where we ran (hahaha) into a bunch of friends and neighbors!  Last year we ran the 8K so this year we opted for a short 2 miler.  It was a great distance…but I felt guilty afterwards because I still had so much in me!  I definitely didn’t give those 2 miles my all this time around…better luck next year!  We then headed to Mom and Dad’s for an afternoon of lounging, taking the Christmas decorations out of the “Christmas crawlspace” and prepping the meal and general hanging out with family!  We had a delicious meal and lots of fun togetherness.

The Fedota Family Thanksgiving Table

Friday:

Jared and I started our day with a little 4 mile run…no big deal!  And then it was on to…

LIZZIEPALOOZA!!! 

My cousin Liz is currently living in Germany!  And we miss her dearly!  Well…she was in the US for almost the entire month of November and with so many people and places to see she really wanted to make the most of her time…who could blame her!  Well…a few months ago she sent out a cousins email to see if there was a time where everyone could get together at the same time!  And the Friday after Thanksgiving worked for EVERYONE!!!  We all agreed to meet at my Aunt’s house in Hampshire, IL.  Oh what fun!!!!  Here’s who was all in attendance:

My Grandma (mom’s mom)

My Aunt Linda (mom’s sister)/Uncle Cliff

My Aunt Karen(mom’s other sister)/Uncle Rick

My mom/dad

Jared (brother)

Julie(cousin)/Brad and their children Caroline, Jackson and Harrison (NEWBORN!!!)

Liz (cousin) (her husband Stuart was in CA)

Joe(cousin)/Tricia and their children Megan, Connor and Molly

John(cousin)/Emily and their children William and Henry

Karen(cousin)/Rob

And myself

All the ladies!  :)

It was amazing to have everyone together again!!!  I am so very thankful and fortunate to have such a close extended family!  I love getting together with my cousins and seeing their children!  We love to laugh and tell stories…but I find it ironic that we all used to roll our eyes when our parents would tell repeat stories and now we find ourselves prompting (or even RETELLING) those same stories!!!

We had a very relaxing, hard laughing, story-telling time!  And I can’t wait to see them all again super soon! 

Saturday:

We spend Saturday with my dad’s oldest brother (Mark) (also my god father), his wife and his wife’s sister and her family.  My “cousin” Joe graduated last year from Bradley so I love to pick his brain about his experience there!  Very different from mine…but it’s amazing how many things were similar!  My other “cousin” Karin now lives in Morton and for those of you that don’t know…I student taught junior high in Morton!  SMALL WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!  It was great to see them all again and feel the love with my fake extended family.