Home for the Holidays!

In September my dear Grandma Gladys passed away. We miss her very much, but it was the end of her journey and we are very happy for her. We know she is with us every day and that she is with Grandpa, too! Grandma gave me one last gift, and that was bereavement time from work. I took full advantage of this and used it during the Thanksgiving holiday, so that our whole family could be together, enjoy good quality time together, and celebrate and be thankful for Grandma.

The first stop on our trip was Madison. Will and I spent some time with his family and had an early Thanksgiving with his parents and some close family friends.

We had a nice time relaxing around our parents' houses.

The new Edgewater Hotel had opened up since we last were back, so my parents, Will, and I stopped to take a look around, have a drink, and a little snack. It was a beautiful winter's evening.

Outside the Edgewater

On Wednesday my parents, Will, and I drove down to Chicago where we would celebrate Thanksgiving. 

My parents have been sorting through things in the basement recently, and decided it was time for one of our all time favorite games to be kept at Meredith's house: Mall Madness! Of course we had to play it! The boys were good sports, or should I say shoppers!

Thursday morning was a busy day in the kitchen. I helped chop, peel potatoes, and mix the stuffing. The men tended to the roast!

While taking pictures throughout the week, Dad mentioned that he feels like if the picture taker takes too long to snap the picture, he feels like he looks like a person who just escaped from a mental institution because his eyes open wide and his smile starts to fall. Here are the boys showing what that looks like . . .

Ann, Don, and Mary came to join us for Thanksgiving in Chicago! We had a beautiful table of food and guests for the occasion.

Ann took a nice family photo of us!

After the guests left it was time to get our Packer gear on for the big game! Of course there were some Bears fans in the mix too . . . But first we had to have some snacks!

A house divided.

Friday we went out and about in the city and played three rounds of Sequence; we each won once! Saturday morning it was time to go. Looking forward to being back in just a couple of weeks for the next holidays!