Thanksmus

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Jason joked that Christmas would be at 10 the next day, Thanksgiving would be at 2, and New Year’s would be at midnight. He was almost right. The next morning we finished decorating the tree, put the turkey on the smoker, and then surrounded ourselves with piles of presents and had fun digging in. Opening presents with the Johnson clan always involves someone asking, “Does anyone have a knife?” and at least five people reaching into their pockets. This year it also involved easy clean-up, as Cole designated himself garbage man after opening his first present, urgently asking if I had any wrapping paper for him to throw away. This, of course, was my favorite picture. Apparently you DO start to look alike when you've been married for 33 years...


After Thanksgiving dinner, we all (except the McAfees, who had to work that night) went to the Boise Rescue Mission to serve dinner there. It was a great experience for all of us, but watching Gramps was the highlight—he is definitely in his element welcoming people in the door and thanking them for coming!

Despite our earlier assertions, we didn’t carve out much time in our week for relaxing. In fact, we were on the go most of the time! We loved having dinner with a group of my friends from college, and Black Friday shopping with Mom, Shaanti, and Kim was great fun.

We also had a fun little tea party for Shaanti to pamper her a bit before Baby Mason arrives (any day!), and Mom put together a fabulous blessing quilt for her, made up of squares from all of Mason’s aunts, uncles, grandparents, and great-grandparents (and cousin and brother!).

And, of course, we basked in nephew time. Cole gets funnier every time I see him, and he is so big and smart! We had a great time taking him out for ice cream (where he managed to eat both his cone AND mine!), and we loved chatting, playing, and baking with him. For a taste of the fun, just check out the video below. As Casey said, “This just never gets old.”

And Troy is such a smiley sweetie! I managed (but just barely!) to refrain from waking him up when I thought he had napped too long and needed to come out to play. We were commenting that next time we are all together for Christmas there will be three little boys running around—wow!