Giving Thanks

Things are in full swing Christmas here at the Creers as we are excited to celebrate Christmas #1 in just about 2 weeks before flying home for the holidays. But I can't forget writing a post about Thanksgiving!

The Jack family (my mom, dad, Ginelle, Spencer, and Evan) got here Wednesday afternoon. We surprised Evan by picking up The Limited Edition of Zelda Skyward Sword for Wii and he was so excited. He had been looking for it at every place in Utah County, but as he didn't reserve it, everyone had sold out. So I did a little calling at the local Targets at was able to reserve it at the Cascade Station location. We made a little boy very happy by having it ready for him to play as soon as he got here, and that's exactly what the boys did while the girls were working away in the kitchen making pies and rolls. We had some yummy pumpkin pancakes for dinner and then spent the night swimming at the hotel pool and hot tub.

Thursday was turkey day! We enjoyed sleeping in and then relaxing all morning. We headed up to Battle Ground for Thanksgiving dinner and festivities with my Uncle Art, Aunt Sheri, and their 3 boys (the Gaileys). Sheri brined the turkey and it was AWESOME. So moist and tasty. In fact, if you go to allrecipes.com and search for "turkey brine," hers is the first recipe to come up. We stuffed ourselves silly and then relaxed/watched football/chatted. We watched the movie (from the BBC? You can find it on Netflix) The Nativity and it was so funny. It's a British movie about a church school putting on a Nativity play. Just watch it. We finished the night with pie, pie, and more pie! And then a food coma. :)

Friday we did NOT go black friday early morning shopping. Instead, we slept in to our hearts content. We headed up to Cascade Station and hit up some lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings, then got lost in Ikea. I love that store. I love playing house in all the different set ups. We also scoped out Sports Authority for Dustin to pick out some Christmas presents from my parents, and then explored HomeGoods, which was cool! Utah doesn't have that store and they had a lot of good stuff. Good thing I contained myself and didn't buy anything. Cuz we don't have any money. :( After our adventures at Cascade Station, we made our way north to Vancouver and stopped at Old Navy for some Holiday shopping. We met up with my aunt, uncle, and cousins for dinner at the House of Beijing. I was expecting a restaurant similar to PF Changs based on the awesome reviews my aunt gave it. It was a totally dive. Looked so ghetto. But the food was awesome. I'm still craving the crab puffs right now. We will definitely be going back! We then headed up to Battle Ground for game night. The adults played Frustration and I am so happy to say that I WON! And Dustin came in second! It was a good game with victory for the Creers! To top the night off, we all headed down to Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland for a midnight doughnut run. I have seriously been waiting for weeks for this. I kept wanting to go to Voodoo Doughnuts but kept telling myself that when my family came, we would go. And it was worth the wait. Now I know that Voodoo Doughnuts has a lot of hype and I do have to say that they are not always amazing. They have some doughnuts that are to die for such as the Voodoo doll (chocolate bar doughnut with raspberry filling), Mango Tango (Mango jelly filled doughnut with vanilla frosting and tang sprinkled on top. SOOO good), I've heard the apple fritters are fantastic but haven't tried one yet, and the bavarian cremes. BUT, all their other doughnuts are just kinda so so. There, I said it. But for those excellent selections, they are freaking awesome.

Saturday we didn't sleep in quite as long, but we started the morning with early morning bowling at Big Al's in Vancouver with the Gaileys. After bowling we went to 5 Guys for lunch and then to Sheridan's for frozen custard. (can you tell how much my family likes to eat?!? Kinda the highlight of every trip....) Dustin and I shared a Candy Cane pothole (vanilla custard mixed with crushed candy cane and chocolate shavings with a hot fudge pool in the middle) and it was SO good! My aunt had to leave for work so we headed back to Big Al's for some arcades, and then to Trader Joes. My mom picked up some snacks for their drive home and they all looked so good! Eggnog flavored chocolate covered almonds! Seriously genius. I'm going to have to go pick some up for myself. Saturday night we were SO full from all the previous eating that day that we just kinda chilled at my house, watched Elf to kick off the Christmas season, and ended with Thanksgiving leftovers and pie.

My family left Sunday morning for their long drive back and while it was sad to say goodbye, we are excited that we will be seeing them again soon in Utah! It was such a great Thanksgiving holiday and we are so grateful that my family was able to come out and visit us. Dustin and I are so blessed with everything that we have in our lives! Sometimes we get frustrated thinking about the things we don't have, but we do have so much and are thankful for it every day!