The Giving of the Thanks

This year for Thanksgiving we went up to Minnesota to visit the 'rents and the brothers and the future sister-in-law and the nephew. (Whew!)

So, as we all know, I blog better in pictures, so here we go:

Norman at a Steak n Shake in Kansas. Oh. my. gosh. I had been looking forward to eating there for at least a month. Sooo good. Hamburger (with the crispy edges!), cheese fries, and a (small) chocolate malt. Yum.

Also, gotta jump in here and tell you about the thing I should have taken a photo of, but didn't. FAIL.
We stopped in Emporia, KS, in order to buy Braum's eggnog to take with us. And we got a little lost (Google maps FAIL), and ended up wandering through town (it's pretty cute, actually). On our way through town I saw a Wendy's sign. The moveable letters said "Closed for Remodel". And I looked over at where the Wendy's building should have been, and there was nothing. Nothing but a plot of dirt. I laughed and laughed. Remodel indeed.



The fam around the table. All the best, traditional Mindeman foods. Sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, sticky rolls, and cherry jello (but in tiny fancy glasses! with Cool Whip!).


My mom and my nephew Connor. (I started calling her Grandma by the end of the week. Weird.)

This, believe it or not, is the best of the SIX photos I took of the two of them. Dad kept making faces.

This is my parents' Christmas tree this year. It's like they just... gave up. It's precisely as depressing as it was on Charlie Brown.


Norman, Mom, Henry, and I went thrift storing in Mankato on Saturday. Henry found this elf/gnome, and he and Norman decided to takes menacing photos of him. Then Henry bought him, named him "Green Man", and took him home.


This was the view outside our bedroom window the morning we left to go home. Norman said he would have been disappointed if there was no snow. So, Norman, this snow's for you.


And this is the pile of things I had to ship out when we got back. Going out of town for 5 days around the busiest shopping day of the year -- not the best idea ever.