Our Little Honey Buns: Thanksgiving and a Little Beyond

Dear Kiddos,

What a great time to be reminded of all the blessings that God gives us. We are thankful for family board game time. We've been really into playing the game Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory. Hannah loves to be Veruca Salt, Nathan usually plays Charlie, Dad is Agustus, I'm usually Violet Variaguard and Hailey is Willy Wonka.

Before Thanksgiving, the whole family went to church to help prepare meals for a Foundation Community that is just down the street. Every year we've been a part of this project that helps give residents there a break from cooking for one night. And if you are the one in charge of cooking in your house, you know what a blessing that could be.

A few weeks ago, I had made reservations to go camping during Thanksgiving. As the week approached, the weather report looked worse each day. Finally, I decided to change our reservations (luckily there was availability) and we left on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. On our way to Lake Somerville, we stopped in Brenham for some lunch and ice cream at Blue Bell.

We checked in to our camp site and started to set up.

You guys were so excited to just be in the tent and would've been happy playing inside for the rest of the afternoon, but we had to twist your arm to go out of the tent to explore.

The beach was close, so we just spent some time playing in the sand.

And then we practiced our casting skills at the dock.

No bait was used this first day, but for some reason, you guys were convinced that with the fake bait, you would be able to catch some fish.

There were lots of beautiful rocks along the beach, so Hannah picked up a bunch of colorful stones.

It was such a relaxing afternoon!

After we got back to our campsite, we started a fire with a fire in a box kit that I picked up from HEB a few weeks ago. They were out of firewood, but had these kits, which ended up being so easy to use and start a fire. I think I'll carry my firewood in a cardboard box from now on. Hannah quickly learned where to situate oneself around a fire pit.

We decided to go no frills (kind of our motto for the year) for dinner and just cooked some hot dogs and heated up a can of corn. It was delicious.

After dinner, we made s'mores by the fire. I had gotten special dark chocolate for Hailey, but we learned that dark chocolate doesn't melt very well, so we had slightly crunchy s'mores instead of the gooey chocolate that usually gushes out when you take a bite.

And then you guys started to become little pyromaniacs and purposely started to set marshmallows on fire. (It was a win for me because every marshmallow that you guys burned was one less marshmallows worth of sugar that you were putting into your body! So, Ha!)

Afterwards, you guys decided to go back to the tent to do some reading before having to go brush our teeth. On our way back, we tried to encourage you all to not use the flashlights (you all were incapable of pointing the beam of light towards the ground) so I suggested that we all be like bats to see our way in the dark. Extremely excited about this idea, Hailey, you proudly exclaimed, "I can be like a bat and see in the dark!" and right as you were about to dart off towards the campsite, you tripped over a parking barrier. You couldn't have timed it better in a comedy.

Everyone was ready to go to bed, but we realized that it was only 7:00, so we made some shadow puppets before finally turning out the lights to go to bed.

The morning sunrise was gorgeous. Nothing beats the feeling of cold air hitting your body as you emerge from the cozy tent into the quiet nature.

For breakfast, we had hot apple cider and cranberry muffins. Easiest breakfast ever.

At this point, the weather showed that there was a 100% chance of thunderstorms with temps dipping down below 40 degrees. So, we decided to do what we can and leave in the afternoon.

After driving off site to purchase a box of bait, we returned and first checked out the family fishing pond. Hailey, you and I explored the trails while the others tried their luck with fishing.

After fishing, we decided to explore a mile long trail. Hannah, you really enjoyed drawing in the sand along the way.

Hailey, you were focused on picking the different types of flowers along the path. They were mostly yellow asters, but you would get super excited at the occasional purple beautyberries that we would see.

You walked most of the way, but for a little section, we carried you for a bit.

After a delicious tuna fish sandwich lunch, we packed up our campsite and went to the pier for 1 more fishing session.

After awhile, you guys got bored of fishing, so you decided to play on the beach.

You two decided to dig a giant moat of some sort to trap the water.

It was a long project. We were out at the beach for almost 2 hours. I got a chance to read a book while you 3 played.

Daddy caught a big fish too!

After removing the hook from the fish, we put him back into the lake.

And of course, we took an obligatory family picture from behind and started the drive home.

On Thanksgiving day, Auntie Momo came and spent a few days with us. We decorated some turkeys,

Started to decorate the tree and put out the other decorations like the nutcrackers and the bearnativity.

Auntie Momo even brought each of you a Harry Potter activity kit from her friend. You guys spent a good part of Thanksgiving day listening to the Sorcerer's Stone and completing the activities.

Sorting Hat Fortune Teller

We got a good shipment of Chinese groceries and there happened to be a lot of dry ice left in the package, so we let you guys play with the pieces again.

We had hot pot the day after Thanksgiving and that is one of my favorite traditions.

For dessert, you guys each made a mug cake and topped them with yummy things like ice cream, marshmallows, oreos and sprinkles.

Those were actually sooooo good. The contrast in temperature, texture and flavor was a wake up call to my taste buds. Best. Dessert. Ever.

And when the Christmas decorations come out, so does our Christmas elf, Bubby. We'll see what kind of trouble he gets into this year.

We also took advantage of the break to go to Sea World. We watched the Orca show and Hailey managed to not see the part of the intro video showing Killer Whales hunting seals. Shhh.

This week, we made bath bombs for fun.

And you all also made a bunch of Perler bead creations. Since the big kids got their 2nd COVID shot on Friday, I was expecting you all to feel sick over the weekend, so we didn't have anything planned. Well, ya'll ended up being fine and needed to do things to pass the time.

Hailey, you came up with an amazing design all by yourself (so serious about this). The design is symmetrical and you even used a ring of glow in the dark perler beads so that if you took your star into the bathroom, there would be a ring of light that was visible.