Thanksgiving Is On: A Fox Valley Post-Covid Vaccine Celebration

After taking a year off of traveling for the holidays we are back on schedule.  

Theo went straight to the toy room to start building stuff on the workbench. 

The kids love getting to eat the sugar cereal at their grandparents. 

 

This kind of cereal never saw light of day in my house growing up. Lucky kids.

 

Meadow forgot to pack herself pajamas so borrowed one of my dads t shirts.   

I had to pick up ingredients to make an apple tart for Thanksgiving. I didn't think the grocery store would be very busy on Thanksgiving morning but it was packed. I needed gingersnap cookies and after looking at every package in the cookie aisle this was all I could find. 

This was my first time making a tart like this and it was surprisingly easy.  

It was equally tasty. On par with your standard apple pie.

 My mom had picked up a gingerbread house kit for the kids to do later.

Meadow wanted some books from the basement. While looking I found a bin that had some of my stuff. That's when I found this picture I drew of our family.

 

You called Brittany, Bert?

 

We all did.  

The kids are still not used to being able to go outside without us.

While in the basement I also found this big bin of legos and other various toys.

Then it was time for Snacksgiving. Gail always makes sure to make Chex Mix for me. My fav.

Brittany asked Theo to go collect eggs from their coop. But he wasn't into that idea.

 

Nice place setting, Brittany!

Gail had picked up Larry the Cable Guy bloody marry mix. We all wondered why were drinking bloodies at 4 pm.

 

I preferred Jeff's famous margaritas. 

 

 Theo's still not used to being around people he doesn't see very often. 

We hadn't had dinner yet and dad was already falling asleep. I guess getting up early for hunting will do that for you. 

Then the Gostishas showed up.

Chelsea made us special fall drinks. 

 

I was getting drunk at this point.

The kids made some crafts together.

Wasn't this some kind of ginger margarita?

 

This was Jeff's margarita.  

Theo eventually warmed up to playing upstairs without me. 

 

Harvey was just happy to be with Dunkin Donuts the bunny.

We were all ready for the main course.

Thanskgiving never gets old.

I can't tell you why Theo became a baby bird perched on a branch.

 

I'm not sure either. 

Even better baked.

Hey Brooke got a good pic of me!

 

Make it two!

Theo wasn't that into dinner, but was up for dessert of course.


I guess I wasn't paying attention and left my phone out of site. The phone was taken and I later found all these photos in my camera roll. 

 

Oh, I guess Chelsea took my pic. Ha.

 

Theo found Marina's old Gecko costume that she let him keep.

Oh here's Harvey.

Of course Meadow was going to stay the night with Marina.

It was time to head out, which means hanging out in the kitchen for no apparent reason.

Chelsea wanted to take Theo home with her.

Yay, more sugar cereal. 

Later in the day we stopped back over at Brittany's to pick up Meadow. She was now going to sleep over at Harvey and Nolan's next.

We hadn't seen Chelsea's new house yet since they bought it in August. Kind of funny that we both bought fixer uppers at the same time. 

 

Her place is already looking awfully good.

I am a little jealous of their giant backyard with all the trees. 

 

Right above one of the Fox River's channels too.

When they moved in the main bathroom was completely brown. Brown tile, toilet..etc. 

This will eventually be Brayden's room. He gets the best space. 

 

 I'm surprised Chelsea and Dan didn't take it. Put a Jacuzzi down there. Ha.

We hung out for awhile in hopes that Chelsea would feed us dinner, but no, that was not her plan. Theo didn't want to leave either and said he wanted to sleep over too. That was a big step for him. 

We left the kids and picked up a fish dinner at JD's. 

 

And cheese curds. Can't skip the cheese curds.

 

After we ate with mom, I headed back over to Chelsea's. We didn't have any diapers with us for Theo before we left so I brought over some and his pajamas. When I got there both kids were really sad and wanted to go home. I guess Theo didn't think we were actually going to leave. I'm not sure why Meadow wanted to leave too. Then Nolan and Harvey were sad because they were leaving and it was a big mess.
 

Come on kids.

I guess instead the kids got to do their gingerbread house. 

That was pretty fun. Mostly Meadow, Theo and I made it.

Theo may have eaten more candy than decorated but that's part of the fun. 

I think they did a pretty good job.

Eating more candy, of course.

 

The next day was adventure day. There is a waterfall just north of Green Bay that I had been wanting to go to. Day trip it is.

To entice the kids to come along we promised them ice cream. 

 

 Google Maps had a listing for a place called "Best Ice Cream Place." It turned out to be a gas station with a crazy soft serve setup. It would do.

I was hoping for more of a hike but the waterfall was just off the side of the road. 

With the fluffy snow it still was really pretty. 

 

Not much of a waterfall this time of year I guess.

Fun nonetheless.

Brooke and the kids could've stayed all day.

 

As usual they didn't want to come, then of course didn't want to leave.  

We may have to try this place again in the summer so the kids can play in the water. 

 

 

 

Crazy Brooke decided to go into the spider infested tunnel. I was like nah.

 

There's no spiders this time of year.  

 

There was also a monument to Marquette (I think). One of those famous French explorers.  

Nope, the Jean Nicolet. 

Afterwards we took the scenic route home driving through Green Bay. We thought we would stop at Hinterland but it was packed due to the holiday weekend and a home game tomorrow.

 

 

 Later we drove down with mom to the Oshkosh Celebration of Lights. I'm trying to do all the Christmas things with the kids now since we probably won't get to do much this December.

 

 They had a distanced Santa visit where you stay in your car. Both kids panicked and didn't talk to him at all. I guess we'll be writing letters again this year.

 

 

At the end was a cool music-lead display. You'll have to trust me. 

 

We made one stop on the way home for a light display that syncs to music.
 

Brooke would've stopped at 5 other places, but the kids and I were good.

The guy across the street decided to light his home with a thin blue line of lights. That's fine, I guess, but can you turn that off at a reasonable hour. Next time I'm calling the cops (get it?).

It was unnecessarily bright. 

Sigh.

The kids played outside with their Gigi before it was time to head home. 

Until next time, Little Chute.