After a few planning derailments, we all ended up at my parents house the day before Thanksgiving. It was great having both Stan and Abe home together. It has been a while since we have all been home at the same time.
Now, on to the all the family fun...it has become a new family tradition that the girls cook one night, my mom cooks thanksgiving dinner, and the boys cook the night after Thanksgiving. We started this last year and it was really fun and it keeps my mom from being in the kitchen the whole holiday. This year we changed things up just a little and just the girls cooked. Last year we had so much food left over from 3 big meals that the guys decided not to cook this year. I don't think the amount of leftover really had anything to do with it, I think it was that they didn't want to cook. We (the girls) decided to cook pizza. Since there are 3 of us (me, Lindsay, and Priscilla) all made our own pizza so we would have a variety. I made a chicken pesto pizza. Check out our delicious pizzas.
Our whole family is very competitive so when we are all together we turn everything into a competition. Because of all the competitiveness, this weekend was fulled with lots of game playing. The entire weekend was spent either eating or playing games. Each night we would sit around the table playing Taboo. After we went through all the cards (both front and back) we changed to playing fish bowl. I don't think I have laughed so hard in years. On Thanksgiving day the girls challenged the guys to a game of bocci ball. All the Hodges kids are very competitive and lucky for me so is my sister-in-law Lindsay. None us of had ever played bocci ball before so we all came to the field with the same skill level. I'm pretty sure that the guys thought they had it in the bag but they were wrong. The girls dominated!! Not wanting to lose to girls they challenged us to a rematch and they lost again.
When the fun of bocci ball was over we started playing in the pile of leaves we raked up. I know this is something that small children do, but there is something about going home for the holidays that turns us all into children. The fun started when Justin threw my parents cat into the pile of leaves. It only took seconds for the cat to race out of leaves and hide from us. After the cat, Justin thought it would be a good idea to jump into the leaves. Then it went downhill from there and for some reason we started kicking leaves at each other.
My mom not only made a great Thanksgiving dinner she also made a great centerpiece for the table. She is always making the house so festive.
Continuing with the competitive theme of the weekend Abe & Lindsay challenged Stan & Priscila to a game of corn hole.
While they played corn hole, my dad took me for a ride on his motorcycle. Don't I look styling with my pink helmet?
We ended the night making gingerbread houses. It was a contest (I told you we were competitive) I'm sad to say that Justin and I didn't win. Stan & Priscila won. I can only blame Justin for this loss.
Going from left to right, Stan & Priscila, my mom's, Justin's mom's, mine & Justin's, and Abe & Lindsay's. I really think we should have won, since we had both a reindeer and Santa on our roof.Since, we are an hour and a half from any good shopping we didn't get to experience any of the Black Friday deals. We did however send the afternoon shopping around Winona (all 3 shops). Friday night we had a talent show...yes, that's right we had a talent show. (Did I tell you we are a competitive family?) I didn't get any pictures of this and I'm still hitting myself for not taking pictures. I played the recorder, Stan & Lindsay salsa danced, and Abe & Lindsay wrote and preformed a song. Justin was chosen to be the judge since he really has talent. Abe and Lindsay won the show with their on rendition of Carol of the Bells, Thanksgiving style.
We had a great time and always love when we are all together.
