Thanksgiving 2015

This post is a tad overdue, but that doesn't mean I'm not thankful for our 2015 Thanksgiving.  We had the privilege of hosting and Nana & PopPop for the holiday.  It was a lovely, simple, family day.  

It started early with my hands on the slippery, slimy turkey, but the effort was all worth it to have the house warm and full of the savory scents of the turkey roasting early for our noontime dinner.  Nana & PopPop arrived around 9:30am.  It was a mild day, so the boys were all outside (well, Janse was already napping) running around on the sidewalk welcoming them to our home.  After our initial reunion, we settled to catching up in the living room and then of course, as usual, Nana & PopPop just had to come bearing gifts. =)  The boys were pleased of course.  Here's Penn with his Paw Patrol toy (this weird squinty face is a happy smile, he's just three and really funny).

Tav got a beautiful Ravensburger puzzle showcasing one of his favorite animals on it, dolphins!  Quite a challenge for a 5 year old, but definitely doable as a family effort (see later in the post...so fun to work on all together!).

Koen got a really cool map with punch-out holes for each state's state series quarter.  PopPop came prepared with a bag of several states' quarters to get him started.  It was a great activity for Koen and he's excited to fill in the whole country.  Perfect timing too since he just finished a unit on North America at school...a good review of the US geography they covered!

You can see we jumped right in on the project.  I love these gifts that are activity-based.  The kids always wanted to get started right away and it is fun to all work on them together and I know the grandparents enjoy watching them enjoy the gift.

We got a family gift of one of our favorite bedtime books, "Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site."  PopPop is the ultimate book reader with his fabulous voice and his readiness to snuggle up with the boys.  Penn wasted no time getting him to read the newest addition to our family library.

Tavin couldn't resist and joined in as well.

Since Janse was still sleeping, we took a break from the gifts and turned the parade on.  Usually I don't really pay attention to it, but the boys were kind of into it (for a little while at least) and it was just a nice, relaxing thing to do together.  

Janse finally started to stir and I rushed to get him to maximize time to show him off and share him with Nana and PopPop.  Koen was also eager to get some little brother time (they have the most amazing relationship and Koen just craves Janse time).  Here's Jansen with his gift.  It was a big hit!  

PopPop was also a big hit.  Again, he's quite the entertainer.  Janse liked his antics.  He was fascinated by his voice, silly noises and facial expressions.

Penn just loves to be read to right now and so he not only had PopPop read to him, but he snuggled up to Nana several times as well.

I totally missed the opportunity to take a picture of my pretty turkey (which wouldn't do it justice because it tasted even better anyways) or my little table set up or all of us gathered together enjoying the meal.  But oh well, it happened and it was lovely. =)  After dinner, we got the cleanup started and then the two younger guys down for naps after some more time with Nana and PopPop.  Then in the afternoon I got to take a walk with Koen and Nana and Tavin got some PopPop time to start the puzzle.  Later they had some more special time doing stamp work together.  Tavin had been talking about that for days.  He was so excited to get that special attention from his PopPop.  Thanks, PopPop, it meant the world to him!

After our walk, Koen, Nana and I played Scrabble.  It was Koen's first time playing on his own.  A big deal in this family!  He held his own with a little first-timer help from Nana and Mommy. =)  Good job, Koen.  Looking forward to 100's more games over the coming years and holidays. =)  After that, Janse was up and I again got him quickly so I could share my little love with his grandparents.  Here he is with Nana.

I, of course, had to snuggle my Jansen (and Koen caught it on the camera) a little too.  It's amazing this sweet blessing wasn't here just a year ago and now he's such an integral and special part of our family.  Children are truly a blessing from the Lord.

As you can see, as the afternoon/evening wore on, we all dug into the puzzle as a family.  

To be honest, it's still on the dining room table.  We've made a lot of progress, but 1000 pieces is a lot!!  I have a goal to finish it before Thursday night.  It'll be nice to have the dining room table back, but it's actually been a fun family project to come back to again and again this week and enjoy conversation over, etc.  

So, that was Thanksgiving 2015 in a late nutshell.  A simple, special day surrounded by some of the people we love the most in this world.  Thanks for coming, Nana and PopPop.  We are thankful for you!