Bob and Jody's visit! Thanksgiving 2012

Stylin', right?  Who can pass up a smooth hairnet hat?  Not the Smiths, we love them, or actually, we love going places which require a hair net, and the winner this year was the Jelly Belly facto, er old factory.

In Southern Wisconsin, there used to be a Jelly Belly factory, which is now a warehouse, but they also have a factory store and a tour which explains the history and how to make Jelly Bellies.  It was  fun trip, and it is located right next to an outlet mall, so we killed two birds with one stone.

We can't say enough how much we like having family visit, and the tradition of having my mom and dad every other year for thanksgiving is great.  They spend the week and get to enjoy the kids and of course, help us cook.

The newest member of the Smith family, a new fridge.  Our old one, which we hated, finally died, allowing us to move on.  Thanks Home Depot.

As the kids get more spoiled, we try and help them focus on our many blessings.  It was fun to see them come up with ideas for their placemats.

Austin is taking after me and his favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, which coincides with him stuffing himself.

We kept the evening going, by decorating rice krispy trains later.  More sugar, but luckily this one was just for decoration.

Reagan is our prodigy, beating us all at scrabble... just kidding, she did not enjoy this game at all.  Marci did not either, preferring the online version!

Well, we accomplished every Thanksgiving activity, including heading to the zoo to get our Christmas tree.  It was cold, so cold, we could not get Marci to come along.  She and grandma stayed home in the warmth.

The perfect tree.  As long as Austin stayed right there, the tree was perfect, which actually was not far from the truth.  Once we got it in the house, and almost fully decorated, it fell on top of Marci.  We laughed for quite awhile about that one.  We ended up tying it to the stairs with a bungee cord, such rednecks!

We even fit in a stop at the lake shore.  Lake Michigan is so cold, I can't imagine it is ever fun to get in, but in November, just a toe in the water is enough.  It is amazing to see the Lake and realize how big it really is, but still not fun to get in.