Turkey Day - The Most Wonderful Day of the Year

Thanksgiving this year came too soon and felt too short!

Ani, Kirk, and myself made the 11+ hour drive to California (deja vu anyone?) and spent the Thanksgiving holiday with the Parkinson side.

The food was remarkable and the company was amazing. We chatted and chatted and chatted and lingered and lingered some more. I was so busy gabbing with my CDF (Crazy Dysfunctional Family as we so lovingly call ourselves) that I didn't even get to enjoy the dessert!

All the grandkids with the pops... or Poppi as we call him. Can you say estrogen much? Girls rule in this family. 

Calvin enjoying a nice beverage from his very own goblet. He was pretty proud of that thing.

And the scruffy turkey as I affectionately call him. I LOVE a little scruff on a man and it only took minor convincing - he ended up loving it more than I did! And it's red! Who knew?

I love this picture of my mom and great uncle Dellenbach! They look so happy.

After the feast and festivities, a few of us cousins decided to go see Breaking Dawn that night and drag our significant others to the movie - Kirk was a trooper. (I highly recommend movie theater going on Thanksgiving. You get the whole theater to yourself!) We had a grand old time pointing and laughing and cringing throughout the show. I didn't know honeymoons could be so awkward...  

On Friday, we decided we wanted to get our hit of Chipotle - a must if you are in the Fairfield area - and invited everyone and their dog to join. It wouldn't be a true family outing if every family member didn't attend. We couldn't find enough seats inside the restaurant to we took over the outside patio area and dinned like true Parkinsons do - burrito bowl style.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out, watching home videos, talking wedding, and eating sweets. I even made a batch of chocolate covered oreos thanks to the great mind of Kirk Ouimet. (I know, the chocolate covered oreo thing is getting a little out of hand. But they are so fun to make and so delicious.)

We decided that should head east back to Utah on Saturday. We woke up kind of late and wanted to say goodbye to our mama llama and Bebe and Dolly (our family has quite the nickname repertoire.) The early afternoon turned to noon and by then we thought we should probably eat before hitting the road, so we made a trip to In-n-Out with everyone in stow in the back of the van and retrieved the extremely large order of cheeseburgers, fries, and diet cokes. $40 to feed 11 people? Not too shabby.

After our feast, we lingered a little longer in hopes that maybe if we stayed long enough, the day would never end. But alas, 4pm rolled around and we thought we should probably get on the road before Monday comes.

Travis, Rachel's BF, even loaned us his radar detector in an effort to help get us back to mormon-town faster. It did help. We shed off at least 2 hours of the drive and made it back and snug in our beds by 2am. We are leaving at 4pm every time now... JUST KIDDING.

Sidenote: The drive always seems to work out nicely for Kirk. He sets up camp in the back of the car and "works" while I manage to drive the whole way... funny how that happens.

Now it's time for the Christmas festivities to begin! Christmas shopping, staring at lights, listening to holiday music and a possible musical or two!
Happy Holidays EVERYONE!