THANKSGIVING!

We had a great Thanksgiving day today. It was the first year we were all alone with no one to share a meal with. It was the Rodgers year for Thanksgiving and grandma and grandpa flew the coop and headed to Caryn and Cade's house; all the Jensens went to their in-laws since it wasn't the Jensen year; and some friends invited us over but we decided to give it a whirl this year just us. I made my very first turkey - no thanks to Stephanie making me do it. It was kind of fun and yummy - I even made homemade cranberry sauce - what what!! We started out the day with the annual Turkey Trot but decided to let the kids run it with us this year, but then I backed out so someone would be at the finish line as each kid ran and Jared ran with the twins. Eli ran ahead of them and Emma and Maddie walked together - they did the 1 mile and the boys all did the 2 mile - I was very proud of all of them. After the race we went back home and started making dinner. I was smart and ordered rolls from Kneaders ahead of time so the rolls were done, we had mashed potatoes, corn, turkey, cranberries, stuffing, gravy and fresh frozen mint lemonade - we only made what we all wanted to eat. We set up a fun table out back and really enjoyed the time together. Afterwards, Jared took a nap while the rest of us watched tv and then it was back outside for dessert - smores pie, banana cream pie (made by emma) and apple turnovers with vanilla ice cream! It was a great day and we have a lot to be thankful. Love my family!

Eli finishing solo and first out of our family

 dessert time!

 Just so we are clear - that was NOT their time - they stood under there to be funny!

 Eli wanted to beat the turkey - maybe next year!

 these girls did NOT want their picture taken - notice they are turning around and walking backwards to avoid it!