Fox Valley Thanksgiving 2022

As always, we made the trip to Little Chute and the Fox Valley for Thanksgiving.

Since we don't eat Thanksgiving dinner until the evening. I suggested this year we drive on Thanksgiving day instead of leaving the night before.

First thing when we arrived, G.G. was already giving Meadow gifts.

My mom is always spoiling her.

Then we were off to Brittany and Jeff's for Thanksgiving fun.

Theo got the longest piece of cheese.

Marina showing us her island on Animal Crossing.

I made some maple whipped cream just before everyone arrived.

All the cousins wanted to do at first was watch each other game.

Theo stayed with us when the kiddos finally started to play something other than Switch.

Eventually Theo warmed up to playing with his cousins.

Look at this dumb picture. At least that's what G.G. would say.

Chelsea surprised the kids with this cute cookie decorating kit that looks like Thanksgiving leftovers.

Theo just watched. Silly little guy.

This cranberry bread that Brittany made was amazing.

Theo does not like to eat around other people. So I took him in their dinning room.

I was in charge of desserts this year. I made a Pumpkin cake with cream cheese filling, Scott made pumpkin pie for the traditionalists and we brought an apple pie from Pentz Homes.

Thanks for the pie, Nate. Brooke and Chelsea claimed the Bundt cake was the best and everyone was disappointed I used canned pumpkin. It's just canned pumpkin comes from gourds that taste better. This was the best pumpkin pie I'd ever made. I should make a sweet potato pie and see if anyone notices, next year.

I asked Jeff if I could check out his studio. He makes so many cool things.

I loved his doomsday prepper action figure. These start out as old action figure and then he builds completely new figures out of them after grinding off all the details.

I feel like we have a version of this photo every year.

Well, yeah.

Here's a second one for good measure.

For some reason everyone was playing in the stairway.

I think we were attempting to get a photo of the Grandparents with the grandkids.

Theo and Harvey were getting along. Harvey wanted Theo to sleepover.

Friday

Scott and I took advantage of having babysitters and set off to do some Christmas shopping for the kids. On our way to Fond Du Lac we had hoped to stop at Ardy and Ed's in Oshkosh but they were closed for the season.

Since we were already across from Lake Winnebago, we took the scenic route from Oshkosh to Fon du Lac.

Being off the highway we happened to turn on Brooke St. Scott said we needed to pull over for a photo. When I looked at the sign I said, hey, we're on Scott St too. So of course we had to take a photo.

We had come down this way so we could go to the Kristmas Kringle Shoppe.

Scott said, "Oh, so that's where all your birthday statues are from."

Somehow I'd never seen these the other times we'd came here.

What the heck. I didn't get the graduation girl.

This place is magical, but I always feel like I'm going to break something.

Why we came without kids.

I guess we forgot there was another whole floor of ornaments downstairs. That's where we found the perfect ones for Theo and Meadow.

There's something for everyone here.

By now we were hungry for lunch and stopped at Fast Taco. As we say, we love a good hole in the wall taqueria. This space looked like it used to be a banquet hall.

Now it's a Mexican market plus taco joint.

The weather has been so nice. We promised Theo a trip to the playground before it got dark.

It's funny how I've seen this house many times but yet never really stopped to look at it. I'm sure the inside looks nothing like it originally did.

I have to have taken pictures of it multiple times. It really stands out in a sea of ranch homes and side by side duplexes.

Theo and I had a lot of fun on this playground just around the corner from her parent's house.

Theo did not want to leave, but we had plans for the night.

My dad was going to be hunting the rest of the weekend, so I asked if we should go out for dinner. He suggested the Lox Club. I love checking out all the fish fries in the area.

Another Supper Club? Yes, please! It's in an odd location and doesn't seem like it's changed much since it was opened.

The woman in the blue sweatshirt on the other side of the bar loved Theo. She bought him a candy bar and gave him $2.

We couldn't say no.

Midcentury Wisconsin bars are just so great.

Later on I found out they had a very Wisconsin table of starters.

I'm sad we missed this.

Another Supper Club and Friday Fish Fry checked off the list.

There needs to be a Wisconsin Supper Club app where you check and rate the ones you've been to.

We spent Saturday hanging at Chelsea and Dan's place. The kids were whiny until they saw the trampoline out back.

Meadow is always so popular when we come to the Fox Valley. Everyone wants to spend time with her so we have to make sure her time is split evenly.

Meadow and Theo jumped on the trampoline with Harvey and Nolan for a good while.

Brooke wasn't feeling well, so she took a nap, while Chelsea decorated her house for Christmas.

I woke up with a horrible migraine and my parents only had expired pain medication. I had to wait until we got to Chelesea's to use her migraine medicine.

Since we were still here at supper time, I decided we should get our favorite place in Appleton, Josef's. It turned out that they even have a family meal. Perfect.