First of all, I can’t believe I never blogged about Thanksgiving… and now, it’s CHRISTMAS, and the year is almost OVER?! Oh, and we bought a minivan (but that’s for another post).

Since I haven’t yet completed my time machine, I’ll just have to pick up where I left off. Though in my defense, here’s my travel schedule since November 1st:

• Nov 1-6 = Maui for Family Vacation
• Nov 11-12 = Portland
• Nov 20-27 = Atlanta for Thanksgiving
• Nov 30-Dec 3 = London
• Dec 9-11 = Boston
• Dec 22-28 = Minnesota for Christmas (“And she’s still here!” – Goldilocks reference)

One might argue I should have had some time to do a little storytelling, but that hasn’t been the case. I’ll skip the work trips, since work is clearly not the point of this blog. But THANKSGIVING is a must.

Yet again my gracious sister opened her home to our ragtag crew, and we flew on Ella’s second flight ever (heck, second in November!) to Atlanta for Turkey Day. We had a great time eating, hanging out, visiting the Georgia Aquarium, eating some more, visiting family and getting a FIRST EVER “all cousins” photo in Santa’s lap!

Now, before I show THAT picture, I must say that I was a little obsessed about making this happen. At first, I nonchalantly mentioned that Santa was at a nearby mall. We visited that mall, rode the carousel, shopped a little, and chose NOT to stand in the Santa line. But I was  not deterred (insert cute picture of carousel ride):

So the following day, I casually mentioned, “Wouldn’t it be cool for Mom to have a picture of ALL the cousins with Santa?” (though without a doubt, I was the one who wanted that picture). “Maybe if we were FIRST in line, it wouldn’t be so bad? They open at 10 am.”

And so, my sweet (reluctant) sister took us again to the mall. THERE WAS NO LINE! I thought, what luck! But actually, apparently THIS Santa was a “Santa Experience” by Dreamworks. Santa’s visitors were supposed to get a “boarding pass” online and book a time to EXPERIENCE Santa. Oops?

Good news? We were first in line and no one asked about our boarding pass until we were in the first room (yes, ROOM) with 4 cute children having watched the first video experience about Santa’s flight to the North Pole being cancelled. We had to save Christmas.

So they scrambled to get us a boarding pass, got us into the next room to “get our Pilot’s license”, then to the following room where we took a “thrilling cinematic sleigh ride” in a full-sized sleigh, THEN to a final room where we made fake gingerbread cookies on an iPad as we waited our turn to sit on Santa’s lap.

And it was worth every second:

I know I’m biased, but those are some beautiful children.

Between getting to spend time with my extended family, many of whom had never met Ella, to getting many a hug from my favorite sister, Thanksgiving was a huge hit. (I mentioned the eating, right?)

I even got a picture of my lovely mother, with my lovely children (actually, I got 4 pictures, each with ONE person looking at the camera, but this one’s pretty good!):

Anyway, one holiday down, one to go. I’ll wrap up this Christmas (get it?) once we get home, but for now I’ll just be proud I wrote about Thanksgiving before 2015 was entirely over.

Hope YOUR Holidays are FABULOUS! 

And if you need a smile or two, keep reading for a few more pictures of cute children (if I do say so myself). No, the last one is not asking for money, she’s just pensive ;)