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Thanksgiving in North Carolina, part 1

We packed so much into our trip to Winston-Salem over Thanksgiving that I'm going to split it up into three posts.

I mean, I could DO it in one, but we all might die. Me from writing it and you from skimming it and then trying to convince me you'd read every word.

So, three posts it will be. Today's is about Thanksgiving Day itself. Do you remember me Tweeting about a month ago that I'd gotten some wild hair and registered myself to run a 5K on Thanksgiving morning? WELL.

Turns out, when you register, they expect you to actually show up and DO IT.

We'd arrived in Winston the night before, and Nathaniel, Jake and I showed up at the 5K spot at 8:00 on Thanksgiving morning, chock full of regret. HAPPY THANKSGIVING! But we were very, very happy to see much of the rest of the family there -- at least those who were willing to brave the 34-degree temperature and/or weren't at home preparing for hordes of hungry people to descend upon them in a few hours. This was the One-Mile Fun Run crew, led by Tiffany: And here was our intrepid 5K crew: (I will take this opportunity to point out -- since he is standing just behind me and to my left in the royal blue jacket -- that Grant finished the 5K in 25 minutes. I finished in my standard 48. Those are not typos.)

The 5K didn't start until after all of the Fun Runners came back in, so I was able to get pictures of our family members as they finished. Abby: Anna Kate: Tiffany and Jack (with an assist from Gary, in blue): And then, FINALLY, after 18 minutes had elapsed, and I was worried I'd somehow missed them, Nathaniel and Jake turned the corner and came down the path to the finish line: I knew SOMETHING must have been amiss, because Nathaniel had run his last 5K in good time, so the one-mile course should have been a breeze. BUT I'd told him that under no circumstances could he leave Jake, that he HAD to stay with him. So. When I caught up to them on the other side of the finish line, Nathaniel said, "OH my GOSH, Mommy. I am NEVER doing this AGAIN with Jake. He ran like a hundred FEET and then he was like, 'My hands ah SO COLD, I can't run anymo-ah! SLOW DOWN. I can't DO this.NEE-THAN-YELL ... STAWWWWPPPP!!!" So that went well. But most importantly, Jake got a medal, which if you ask him, completes him.

I took my leave of them and went down to the 5K starting line, where I snapped this picture right before I took off. Objects in photo were colder and grumpier than they appear. After we finished the race, we got showered and changed and headed over to Matt and Patrice's house for brunch, which was delicious. And my sister-in-law Debbie (Matt's mom) had thought ahead (as always) and prepared a craft for the kids to do on the back porch afterwards. Turkeys! The kids had a great time decorating the turkeys, and then Patrice and I finished the extras up. I do love a good foam turkey craft. So does Jonah. See? Here's one of mine, all finished and clipped to the tree in the front yard later that day. I used some of the extra red dots to give her a pedicure. Here's one of the kids' turkeys -- one of the kids who pretty much followed the template: As opposed to one of the kids who decided to do a "mutant turkey": I mean, what's Thanksgiving without a few mutant turkeys?

After we hung all the turkeys on the tree, I managed to get Abby, Amelia, Jonah and Will to stop for a quick picture. And then they spent pretty much the rest of the day running around the backyard, which was great. Even though the forecast was a little grim, the temperature ended up getting up to about 51, and it was sunny, so it felt great. Amelia was comfortable with no jacket -- she must have inherited my internal body temp. She rocked the remnants of her black eye and her adorable turkey dress (a hand-me-down from blog reader Tracey) all day. She loved Jonah and G's slide and took several turns on it. And she and Jonah were awfully cute when they shared it from time to time. Thanksgiving night the guys took some of the kids to see Frozen (which they LOVED), and then the women stayed for a BeautyCounter demonstration by Patrice. Have you ever heard of it? I'd never heard of it before Patrice became a consultant, but I was interested in learning about it. I won't lie ... it's expensive. But it's all-natural, and I've had so many problems with my skin since I had Amelia that I have nearly reached the end of my rope. I ended up ordering several of the skincare basics, along with the shampoo and body wash. Apparently essential oils and the like are all the rage right now, but I've been oblivious to the trend. However, I'm really liking what I've used so far. If you're interested in learning about it, let me know and I'll hook you up with Patrice. Okay, more about our Thanksgiving trip tomorrow! So much more to share!
Posted by Katherine @ Grass Stains at 12/09/2013