Catching up: Thanksgiving

One of the realities of being a division one volleyball family is that the season continues all the way up to Thanksgiving.  This makes traveling to be with family extremely difficult.

This year was a really fun break from tradition.  Our good friends, the Snyders, trekked from St. Louis to Tuscaloosa with their two kids for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Cory and Josh played football together at Washington University, so Josh was especially excited to take him to the Iron Bowl.

The Cobbs, who recently moved to Montgomery from St. Louis, were also able to celebrate with us.

We all looked at each other as we gathered at the afternoon feast and said:  "Who would have thought we would all be in Tuscaloosa, Alabama for Thanksgiving?"  Amazing where life takes us.

The fun began with Josh's final match with Alabama... it was a sweet victory over Mississippi State.  Our guests and their kiddos gathered in the spirit line as the team came on to the floor from the locker room.

We will forgive Aaron for wearing a shirt that was a little closer to Mississippi State's maroon than Alabama's crimson.  

The next day was feast day... my first Thanksgiving truly in charge of the kitchen.  I tried to incorporate some fun elements for the kids and yummy foods for all of us.  I was really excited about the turkey place cards I created after getting the idea here.  They took a little time to put together but I loved the final product.

Turkeys under construction

Almost finished

Final product

Our meal was very traditional... turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, etc.  The gravy, however, is always a source of marital strife in the Lauer house.  You see, I am a 'au jus' kind of girl where Josh is an 'add a little flour' kind of guy.  Fortunately, we had enough drippings to go around so major calamity was avoided.  Josh got back in touch with his chemistry roots as he worked magic with the gravy.

When you cannot be with family, good friends are the next best thing.  Great food and even better company.

And nothing compares to a post-feast nap...

We also attempted the traditional 'kids on the sofa' pic.  When I loaded the shots on to my computer, Nicole and I were almost in tears from laughing so hard at our kids antics captured on film.  Which is probably even better than a pictures with them all smiling and looking at the camera!

There were lots of other fun moments from the weekend.  I was giving Eli a bath one evening when AJ and Elise decided they had to join him...

There was also some quality bonding time between Cory and Eli.

Friday was the day of the big Alabama-Auburn football game.  We all headed to the quad to take on the game day atmosphere before the guys headed into the stadium and the moms and kids headed home to watch on TV.

It was a fantastic weekend with really good friends.  Thank you Snyders and Cobbs for joining us!