We are going back to Atlanta for Christmas this year so we just stayed home for Thanksgiving. The Wednesday before was my last day at Sony and the Tuesday after was my first day at Intuit, so it was nice to just take the long weekend to relax before such a big life change.
On Wednesday the kids made cute little Thanksgiving crafts at daycare - a turkey handprint and an indian headdress (which I'm not sure is PC, but whatever, it was cute.) I really love this kind of stuff!
Late Wednesday night, my brother Jason came down from LA. He could only stay a couple days but we were so happy to have him. Jack really liked playing with his uncle Jason in October and was really excited for him to come back - although he was really confused that he came without Grandma.
We had just received a new shipment of diapers in a giant box, so on Thursday morning I tasked my brother with making it into a clubhouse (or something) for Jack. Jason is super creative and I knew they would both have a lot of fun making something. Jason jumped right in and did not disappoint. He tore apart the entire box and just used the materials to build a rocketship - or at least that was the plan. He ran out of cardboard and couldn't make the top part but Jack didn't know the difference. He ended up attaching the new "rocketship clubhouse" (as Jack called it) to our old one (which became the "garage") and Jack was in heaven. He could barely wait until it was done and kept climbing in it while Jason was trying to construct it.
Kara liked it too because it gave her something else to pull up on.
Jack insisted that we all get in it and go to the moon (to look for tigers and buried treasure of course.)
In the early afternoon, I put out some simple snacks and our friend Jordan came over. He doesn't have any family in SD either, so we often get together with him on holidays.
I didn't feel like cooking this year (at all, not ONE thing) so I ordered a pre-made meal from Whole Foods. We just stuck to the basics - turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and green bean casserole. It was fairly easy (despite it taking a fairly long time to heat everything up) and turned out to be pretty delicious. I'm pretty sure Joey preferred it over my cooking.
The totally low key Thanksgiving feast. Jason didn't even get out of his pajama pants.
On Friday morning, we went ahead and put up the tree so my brother could enjoy a little family Christmas fun before heading home. We only decorated the fake tree since we will be out of town for the holiday but it was nice to get into the spirit! Jack enjoyed putting the ornaments on the tree (all in the bottom center) and Kara let me put her in reindeer ears and the santa bib (for a few minutes.)
My brother had to leave around lunchtime so we said our goodbyes and took a few goodbye pics. Jack definitely has a buddy.
In getting out the Christmas decorations, we found all our Santa books from last year. Jack immediately wanted to read them and we have been reading "Santa is coming to San Diego" non stop all week.
SAFARI PARK
We usually go to the Safari Park on the day after Christmas but since we won't be able to this year, we went on Saturday after Thanksgiving. On the way to the park we stopped at Starbucks to get Jack a little snowman donut - something I've wanted to do since I first saw them a couple weeks ago. I'm such a sucker sometimes! But he loved it!
It was perfect weather for the Safari park - sunny but not too hot. It's inland a little bit and the scenery is always beautiful.
We are members and have been to the park a few times now so we didn't feel like we needed to see everything. We just kind of took our time and puttered around. Jack played with the telescopes...
We played in the playgrounds (which turned out to be super fun)...
Looked at the gorillas and tigers (not pictured)...
Kara chewed on my necklace mostly. She wasn't too interested in much else.
We stopped for a little picnic lunch...
And then played on another playground before heading home for nap. Jack was having a blast.
It was a fun day!
And that's it. I don't remember what we did Sunday but probably not much. It's nice to stay low key sometimes!
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