Thanksgiving 2021

We didn't start our thankful pumpkin very far in advance this year, so we didn't have it very filled up.

Elise and Clara FaceTiming a Thanksgiving craft together.

I took all of this past week off of work, including last Friday as well. It was amazing to have that time to get a bunch of shopping done for Thanksgiving, do appointments, etc.

I did most of my shopping on Monday to get it out of the way - I don't mind grocery shopping at all, but dislike all other errands.

The girls' holiday break started on Wednesday, so they were helping clean house in the morning. We were hoping to do fun stuff then in the afternoon. We did make Chex Mix and they decorated a cookie kit that our neighbor lady brought over for them.

That evening Clara and I went downtown for the Christmas tree lighting at Broadway Square.

We spied some reindeer as we were walking to find a good spot to view the lighting ceremony.

We were so thankful for the gorgeous weather.

Of course Clara saw two girls she knew while we were there.

We had planned to eat out at Blackbird Woodfire Pizza and were hoping to sneak in before it got really busy. We were assuming others would have the same idea that we did and many of the downtown restaurants would be packed after the festivities. But, right after the tree was lit, we hopped across the street and were able to get a seat right away.

Clara declared Blackbird her #2 fav pizza in Fargo - right after her #1, Spicy Pie. She ordered a sausage and bacon pizza for herself and I had the Lumberjack. It was so delish.

Reagan assisted Dana with the ribs.

This game of dice started out all nice and pleasant...until Brynn beat Dana. Hahaha. I was so glad my sister caught these pics because they are so great.

Brynn stayed up and helped me put together our grazing boards on Wednesday night and made this chocolate chip cream cheese dip that we hadn't had in ages, but were happy to have again.

Generation pics. 💓

Playing the new fav game, Catch Phrase.

Pre-dinner shots to get geared up for the final cooking stretch.

My beautiful sister with her beautiful pies!

We also celebrated Christel's birthday by smooshing 43 candles onto an angel food cake Holly made. Dana rustled up his blow torch to light 'em up. Happy birthday, Christel!

Tessa and Chad so kindly took the kids out for McDonald's, as has become tradition, on Black Friday morning...even though none of us went out shopping.

Instead Chad, Tessa and I took the younger kids bowling and Dana dropped the three older girls off at Puzzled to do an escape room.

Though none of us really did any Black Friday shopping, Brynn and I headed downtown this afternoon for Small Business Saturday.

First we stopped at Sonder Bakehouse for some treats. Kayla, the owner, is from Fessenden and it is so fun to see her new store opened up and thriving.

We were having fun, I swear! Ha. Brynn was just a bit cold.

Brynn got hungry for a snack, and she had never been to Nichole's Fine Pastry before, so I thought it was a good time to introduce her to it. She thought it was great.

Clara went to Grandpa and Grandma Froemming's for an overnight visit today and has been having fun playing by the looks of the pics Grandma sent to me.