The Hatz Family: Thanksgiving 2011!

We had such a wonderful thanksgiving and I was off of work for 5 days and LOVED every minute of it!! Below is a quick recap of all the Thanksgiving happenings:

Wednesday, November 23rd
I took the day off work and it was wonderful. My mom and the girls went to Heather's workout in the morning so we could eat guilty-free the rest of the weekend. She totally kick our butts! After workout, we made a quick trip to Sam's for some last minute Thanksgiving items and them back to grandma's house for play, lunch and nap.

Thursday, November 24th
In the morning we went over to my parent's house to hang out with Mark and Grete. The boys (my dad, Mark and Ryan) left around 10 o'clock to golf. You read the right. It was nice enough for them to get in one more round before winter! Matt and I went over to his parent's house for our first Thanksgiving meal. We skyped with Aunt Lisa who was celebrating the holiday with Matt's aunt Gayle and Bob. We filled our tummies except for Carter who kept saying he was tired. I 'thought' he was just trying to get our of eating, which in my defense is a fair guess. So I offered up my lap. Within 2 minutes he was sleeping. I guess he was tired. We were excused from the table and I carried Carter to my parent's house for nap. Matt's parents and my parents live very close to one another. It was so nice out we didn't even need coats!! Anyway, Carter was asleep the entire time we walked but the second we entered my parent's house (which was actually quiet because the fam was out and about) Carter popped up and said, 'where Mark and Grete.' Luckily, I took him upstairs and he fell back asleep.

We hung out at my parent's in the afternoon and prepped for our second dinner that evening. We filled our bellies again and I managed to stay up until midnight to go Black Friday shopping with my mom and Grete. We ended up just going to Kohls so I was home by 12:30!
Friday, November 25th
Friday morning, the girls went to the gym for a post-holiday workout. My sister, mom and I went to Heather's Pilates class, which as always was amazingly hard. I still can't get over something that is so slow moving can give such a good workout. Then we headed home to catch the Iowa vs. Nebraska game - boo! Gah! I am so sick of watching Iowa play like that I could scream (well, maybe I did).

We had hot turkey sandwiches for lunch and I made Carter go down a little early for nap, which was not an easy task. But we had our family pictures scheduled at 3:15, which is around the time he usually wakes up. After ~~nagging~~ asking Matt since October he finally called up his friend Jon-Michael who has started a photography business for some family pics. We didn't do a long session just enough for some holiday pics and I couldn't be happier with them! I would show them to you but then what fun would my Christmas cards be?! :)

After pictures, the fam went to Johnny's steakhouse for dinner and to see the combine made out of cans that was set up at John Deere Pavillon. Carter LOVED the combine and talked about it for days. After another great meal, we headed back to my parents' house to open Christmas gifts! Mark and Grete alternate holidays with Grete's parents so we won't be seeing them this year for Christmas :(. The only good thing about that is I got most of my Christmas shopping done early! Carter was really into opening gifts - much more than he was at his birthday. And like most kids, he loved getting new toys. He played with his new stuff when we got home that night and most of the next morning :).

Saturday, November 26th
Saturday was a lazy day and I can't really remember what we did. I do know that Carter loved playing with his Aunt Grete. Every time I looked over he was curled up in her lap having her read to him or playing with her IPad. It was too cute! I know he must really love her because Saturday night we were looking at Mark and Grete Thailand pictures and Carter sat down with Grete's Iowa State cyclones blanket (!). I asked him if he wanted to Hawkeye blanket and he said, "no, I want the Cyclones." The horror! :)

Sunday, November 27th
We had to say goodbye to Mark and Grete, which is always hard especially since we had such a great time. Katie and I went to see Breaking Dawn! in the afternoon. I loved it. What I didn't love was the phone call I had to make to KMart's customer service department. All I want is the light up Christmas pig with antlers - sounds easy right?! Um no, the woman I spoke with was a complete idiot who apparently has never taken a ship-to-store order in her life and almost a week later I still don't have an answer or a pig. This is why I NEVER shop at KMart.

Other than that, we had a quiet evening at home and put up our Christmas tree and other Christmas decorations. Carter did great job putting up the ornaments.