Some people call it Thanksgiving.....

My family calls it "Turkey Bowl/Movie Weekend"
Bright and early Thursday morning the boys from my hometown neighborhood get together to play football. I couldn't believe how cold it was just standing there - which is why there are not many pictures past the point of the game starting.
My brother Ben is an NFL player at heart. He came out just to show the young ones that age doesn't have to matter when you play the "greatest game EVER" according to him.
I don't know the official number of how many guys came to play, I would guess about 25 or more. This pic was taken as they were starting and several more showed up after my fingers were almost frozen off and picture taking had stopped.

This is known as "THE Field"

Run, Alex, RUN!!

Right to Left: Alex, brother Jacob, brother Ben, .... I can't tell who else

After football, we enjoyed a nice hot shower and then it was off to dinner at the Martin's. DELISH!!! It was so much fun to eat and play games. Ryan and Jenny (Alex's brother and his wife) left their girls for us to play with. I have never had so much fun doing shrinky-dinks. I actually didn't know what they were..... Oh and their daughter Dru and I played an inside game of soccer with a GIANT workout ball and we could only use our knees. It was such a fun Thanksgiving!!!

Now my family's tradition is NOT to stand in line on "black Friday" but to go to a movie. This year was a struggle because we had 8 people to decide on a movie we ALL wanted to sit through. Would you ever guess what the GUYS picked?.....

That's right!! They all were excited... ok more like willing and interested in seeing New Moon. Us girls were ok with that, and they all actually had a good time. It was said to "have an actual plot." Rachel and her boyfriend Jason came to the movie as well as my parents and Jacob and Elaina, but had to go back to work after. The rest of us carried our tradition to lunch :)
(See - they're holding their movie tickets with such excitement)

Alex was not happy when I asked if we could go to JoAnn's after lunch for ornament hooks.... but what a good sport, he went anyway.

The rest of the weekend was full of putting up Christmas decorations and more movies. We rented 7 Pounds because we had a coupon, and we wouldn't recomend it to anyone who actually pays attention to movies.... Hello, what kind of story line was that?
Saturday I went to a dollar movie with my mom and Elaina. Julie and Julia. Ironic that in a true story, she writes her experiences on a blog - life imitating art, imitating life?
I would recomend this movie to any cooking fan. I used to watch Julia Child with my mom on Saturday mornings and although I like to challenge myself with cooking SOMETIMES I'm not anywhere near Julie from the movie. (although if you do see it, plug your ears when the husband comforts his wife on the couch - trust me) We finished off the evening with a trip to Spoons 'n Spice - only fitting. It's like the Bed, Bath and Beyond for cooking. I LOVE IT!!!

Sunday Alex and I had to speak in Sacrament meeting, so of course I didn't pay attention to the menu calendar when it said "pizza" Umm... we don't have any cheese. So we asked Jacob and Elaina if they had any to save us this week (they saved us last week with refried beans for enchiladas) but they didn't have any either. In fact they didn't know what they were going to have for dinner either because all they had scheduled was a side salad.... hmmm

So our evening turned into figuring out what we had the ingredients for? TOMATO SOUP with TORTELLINI!! I LOVE this meal and it didn't let me down. It was so hot, it fogged up my lens. Since we wanted to have some kind of bread to go along with it I decided to whip out my cookbooks... apparently there really should be time and thought put into making a bread of any kind. We didn't have time. So I found ONE recipe for biscuits that didn't call for any time to raise (no yeast) and ..... well there's a reason they're not pictured. They were ok, but very dry.

As we conclude our Thanksgiving weekend, we realize how grateful we are for.... POPCORN!

And that is how we choose to end our evening. Saying good bye to one holiday while we sit next to the lit Christmas tree and pine scented Salt City Candle (the best) already thinking about the next holiday so we can eat and spend time with family :)

I have so much to be thankful for: amazing family - Martins and Hoffmanns, Randalls etc., great friends, AWESOME sisters and two moms who are so generous it's kind of ridiculous. We truly are blessed and I'm glad we have a time of year to remind us of that and to spend time with them all.