Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving at the Willises! Boy oh boy was it a blast! The Willis Family sure knows how to PARTY! Well, I had to work on Wednesday the day before Thanksgiving and Connor and Ryan were done with classes by Tuesday. So they (Ryan, Connor and Meredith) were going to drive to Snoqualmie Tuesday after class, right when the storm hit! Freeways were closing and horrible blizzards were rolling our way and road reports stated it was life threatening conditions. So, they were set to leave early in the morning to let the storm pass. At least that's what I thought when I went to work that day.

I was having a good day at work when I decided I should check my phone to see if there was anything, where I found a text from Connor. This is what it said "So funny story, we're on a plane right now." and THAT'S IT! I just started laughing. I guess they had decided the roads would still be bad in the morning and as Dan and Annette were booking the flights they were over the phone telling the boys the confirmation code as they entered it in to get their tickets. They had decided and were off to Seattle in a half an hour. So, the three of them got there safe and sound, avoiding all of the ice and storms and road closures.

And now I'm sure you're thinking, oh no! what about Janiece! yessss well, I had another day of work,

so once I was done with work on Wednesday I spent the night at Annette's Parents house and was dropped off at the airport early in the morning to catch my flight. I was SO excited to get there!

Every year the Willis Family will fill out the Turkey of the things they are thankful for. That morning at breakfast we all took turns and went around saying our top 3 things we were thankful for. (And you couldn't repeat something someone had already said). This was a fun tradition I really liked.


We had the traditional Thanksgiving feast on Friday so Ron and Elizabeth could join us. And goodness gracious, it was worth waiting for. Annette is an AMAZING cook and everything looked and tasted soooo delicious. She even attempted and conquered making my favorite sour cream and lemon pie. oh yum yum!! And because there were only 6 of us left to eat all of the left overs I was able to have pie after breakfast, lunch AND dinner! Talk about spoiled right?!

The weekend was scheduled around the football games. --By Connor's request. I thought MY family watched a lot of football....well I stand corrected! That tv, I think, was on all day everyday with some football game on that Connor insisted he really wanted to watch. I luckily stole him away to play a few games of battleship and other fun family games. Oh, a fun thing we did was at breakfast that morning, before all of the important football games started, we had to fill out who we thought would win and what the scores would be. The person that was closest for that game got a prize. Connor got two prizes and Meredith got one. I on the other hand, was WAY off!

Saturday morning we were discussing what kinds of activities we wanted to do that day. We all agreed we wanted to go outside for a walk to get some fresh air and maybe walk off some of the food we ate the day before. Well, off we went, down the road. I was thinking, "this will be fun, going on a nice walk around the neighborhood." Well well well, don't be mistaken by the term "walk" around Annette and Dan. And need I remind you they live in Snoqualmie now, where there are trails just right in their neighborhood if they ever felt like hiking around the mountains. And that is JUST what we did! I for one, am EXTREMELY out of shape, and for two, had a horrible cold, and for three, wasn't prepared for Dan and Annette's ability to climb! Because of my cold, I lost my voice, had horrible pressure in my head, and had an extremely runny nose. All of these factored into my inability to keep up with Super Dan and PowerWoman Annette. Alright, I'm exaggerating a bit, the hike was a lot of fun. As Dan would walk he would inform us what each plant was as we passed it and would tell us good stories and jokes. We all had a ton of fun hiking around, laughing at each other, and telling stories.

Before Ron and Elizabeth left after Thanksgiving, there was the "revealing of the lights". We all got outside and waited to see their beautiful new house all light up for the Holidays.

It looked great! This will be their first Christmas in the new house!


Over the weekend we played lots of games. My favorites were Balderdash-Where Annette took first place and I came in CLOSE second! The fun thing about the whole game was, what ever word or story I made up, Connor always thought that it sounded the best! I'm pretty sure he would vote for mine 90% of the time! I guess he just thinks my sense of humor is the best! :)

My second favorite game we played was Pictionary. Dan, Connor and me were on one team. And Ryan, Meredith and Annette were on the other team. And let me just say I learned something very valuable about myself. I am GOOD at pictionary! We SMOKED the other team! It was a lot of fun, definitely a game I want to own some day. That is FOR SURE!