Thanksgiving

Whew! We are home after a crazy, but fun Thanksgiving with our families. The holiday got started a little earlier than we planned. It was 2:00pm on Tue and I was shopping at Target and got a call from Chris saying we needed to leave Tuesday night or we probably wouldn't be able to go to Minnesota until Thursday because of the weather. Thankfully my parents were down for the day so they took the kids to Decorah and we had a little extra time to pack, but we were out the door packed for 5nights by 5:30. We spent Tuesday night in Decorah and arrived in Minneapolis right as the snow/ice was starting on Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday we went down to Bloomington to spend with Chris's grandparents and extended family. The food was delicious and Max thought he was in heaven getting to play with Savannah and Taylor (8 and almost 6yrs old) Mya was pretty leery of the dogs so she stuck by my side most of the day, but managed at times to be herself. Here's a picture of the 4 great-grandkids.



Friday was mostly spent shopping! We definitely took advantage of being in a big city on Black Friday. Chris and I work best when we shop alone, so we split it up. He did the very early bird shopping and then I did mid-morning and afternoon and then he went back out late afternoon. We got lots done and more importantly got some great deals!

Chris's mom is still pretty sore from her arm surgery a few weeks ago. It's tough to not be able to do much for yourself, but it was good for everyone else to step up and help out! Chris and I went to work Wednesday in the kitchen. He made chex mix, I made fudge and an apple pie from scratch! I'm sure it was tough for Linda to sit back and watch me do it, but she let me do it my own way and just gave a few helpful hints along the way:) I know there's a picture out there of me with my pie, so if I get it, I'll post it. Here's the Hoden family Christmas picture for 2010.



Saturday we went to Decorah and spent the rest of the holiday weekend with my family. Most of the day was spent admiring Tara's new iPhone, playing scrabble, drinking wine, and cursing the Hawkeyes. (well, not if you're Chris:) Sunday was the annual Turkey Trot. I look less forward to this each year that passes. My brother (the founder) was complaining that his foot was really sore so I suggested we skip this year and he acted like I said we skip Christmas. Apparently this is not something that is going to go away anytime soon. I won't tell you the winner just yet.(If you're a facebook friend of my sister, then you already know) The winner has to write up his or her summary of the race so when that is finalized, I'll post it on the blog. Obviously it's not me or else the post would have been up minutes after the race:) Enjoy a few of the pictures from the race.









Here's Team Tara relaxing after the race watching a You-Tube clip for the 500th time.