thanksgiving on our own

 Typically family holidays around here are spent with the extended family. But since everyone left us this year we tried to make the best out of our own family fun time and we weren't disappointed. We have a fabulous Thanksgiving Day with plenty of food and fun in the snow. It was the perfect snow for play time.  While the turkey was cooking we took the kids out to Wasilla High School's track and rolled snowballs to attack Daddy, towed the kids in the sled and and tried making a snowman. Ryan did laps on the track with his snowboots on. He said it was a nice soft and squishy run. Our snowman didn't turn out too well cause our snowballs got too big to lift (I know, I know even with Ryan's bulging muscles) But we were able to stack the smallest one that Eli rolled for the head onto the other 2 and took some pics. The kids said they had tons of fun which was nice to hear since when we got there we heard a little moaning and groaning from Eli about how there was no sledding hills. We brought Jersey the dog and she wore herself out. She was so covered in balled-up snow that she could barely run. It was pretty funny to watch her chasing after Ryan while he was running. We had a wonderful dinner when we got home and were invited for pie sharing at our neighbors with friends from church. We missed family, but enjoyed the attention we were able to give to our kids on this thankful day.