Folger's Thanksgiving

One of my all time favorite commercials is the Folgers commercial where the older brother comes home from college and there is Folgers brewing in the coffee maker and the whole family wakes to the smell of it.  They all come downstairs and are hugging and smiling and drinking coffee.  Gosh, if that's not the dream life, then I don't know what is!  I love the fact that the family has an older brother and they all are so happy to see him.  I bet he's home from college where he's studying to be a pediatrician or something awesome like that.  Then, there is the whole family being together and smiling and sipping hot coffee that just makes me smile. I really think that is about as perfect as it gets.  Well, that's kind of how this Thanksgiving was for me.

We had amazing weather last week, which made for great playtime outside.  After saving Thanksgiving last year, John naturally took charge over cooking some amazing pumpkin pies and a juicy turkey.  Even though I love cooking for friends and family, when it comes to the bigger holidays, I don't mind handing over responsibility.  Without having the burden of cooking a bunch of food, I got to hang out.  A lot.  

It started on Tuesday.  I got to have lunch with my in-town cousins, then they came over later that night, as well as Abby, my home-from-college cousin.  This is the thing about Abby: I'm not mad at her, but I'm mad about her.  She's about to take the title of Tallest One In The Family from me and I don't like it.

Wednesday was another Folger's day as Daniel was in town!  It took a few days for Fern to warm up to him, but eventually she did.  

With both my brothers in the house, the play gets pretty rowdy and fun and loud.  The kids love it!

This year, we made the Turkey Trot a family affair.  John, my bros, and I ran it.  The boys did the real one (the 8k) and I ran the 5k walk and pushed Fern in the stroller.  Everyone did well, and if anyone is keeping score, I was the first stroller to cross the finish line.  I'm still waiting on the cash money prize for that.

John had a lot of fun too and I think he's so happy he did it.  He kept his 7 minute mile pace, all after making the turkey and pies for Thanksgiving.  Props to my mom who drove around and took pictures and carried Burl as they cheered us on.  I think Joseph has been running this for about 15 years, so it's a fun tradition for us.  It's a huge race for our town, so we get to see so many people we know!  They serve coffee too, so it's almost like a Folger's moment.

Since we all ran the race, we stayed close to home for Thanksgiving.  We had fun eating, lounging, and going to the playground.  Folgers moment to the max!

That night, I ended up going to a last minute movie with my childhood second family neighbors and best friends.  What a title.  Jason, Heidi and I went to see the new Bond movie.  After the movie, we decided to plan a game night while they were in town.  On Friday night, Jason, Heidi, Brad, Deb, and my mom came over and we played Pictionary late into the night.  Folgers moment once again.  

Thank you, holidays, for bringing people that I love into town.  Too bad I didn't get more pictures of everyone.  My brothers really hogged the camera.  The rest of the weekend had some fun times as well, but what I remember most about this year is how many people I got to see.