Family Time.

Last week, we all descended upon Fort Wayne, Indiana for Thanksgiving at Dad and Jane's-all 9 of us! Chaos. Dad cooked up the turkey and Jenny and I attempted a few new recipes he had selected from Julia Child's cookbook. The joke of the trip came out of my dad's mouth. He kept identifying himself as Julia Child's (or Jane's) assistant, Jacques. As he was whipping up some heavy cream he hollered, "just call me Jacques the Whipper!" Wah waaaaah. Dad had some stiff competition coming up with the best one liners with Gretchen, Adaline and Oliver in the house. I guess Adaline knows that animals are friends, not food because she stepped in during our Thanksgiving Dinner planning sesh to say, "Run turkey, RUN!!" She's two. Kids are funny.

Monsieur Rick & Madame Jane

Oliver was in good spirits despite his broken leg. He even managed to get on the b-ball court!

On Saturday, we piled into 2 cars and headed out to the gingerbread house exhibit to find some inspiration for our gingerbread house craft project. I think it was a hit although it was hard for some to grasp that the gum drops were keeping the walls together and shouldn't be eaten. There were a few minor casualties. Look at that determined gaze on Miss Adaline's face...she has radar lock on an Oreo cookie.

Here is one of our favorite ginger bread houses!! This picture doesn't do it justice though.

Next, we headed to the Embassy Theater to meet Santa (!!!) and to see the christmas tree exhibit. They always do such a nice job making things look festive. Gretchen got to see the tap dancers perform which left her wide eyed and speechless.

On my final night in Fort Wayne, we decided to celebrate Penelope's 5th birthday. Penelope is my sister's pooch who was vacationing at doggie daycare in Virginia during our trip to Indiana. That didn't stop us from making fancy hats in her honor! Yep.

Mmm...

Gretchen volunteered to blow out the candles...

And Jenny and I in our post-party pic...time for a glass of wine!

The drive home with Laura was long-18 hours. But, she and I had lots to discuss. We had pretty much solved all of the world's problems by the time we reunited with the Green Mountain State. Good trip but, glad to be home. xoxo