Thanksgiving and Best Black Friday EVER!

We had our first Thanksgiving on our own this year. It felt different to stay home instead of traveling to be with my family in Ohio or Larkin's family in Idaho, but we were excited to start our own traditions. I was very nervous that I would ruin some key element to the Thanksgiving dinner, but I (with Larkin's help) pulled it off! Our turkey was a little dry, but holy cow, our gravy was amazing! I'll admit that I was most nervous about the gravy and had back-up gravy in a can in the pantry, just in case. We had a great meal followed by great naps for all of us.
My favorite parts of the table setting are the turkeys that Larkin made for me in his shop. I'm going to enjoy reaping the benefits of Larkin's job.

We capped off the day by enjoying a wonderful Le Sueur family Thanksgiving tradition with Ethan and Lindsay's family: a pie buffet! Yes, it was as wonderful as it sounds. Lindsay made the pumpkin, pecan, cherry, and key lime pies. I added the derby and banana cream pies and a dark chocolate mint cheesecake. It was heaven. Pure Thanksgiving heaven.

On Black Friday, when everyone else was out shopping, Larkin and I took the twins to the Houston Zoo. It was a free day, and even though tons of other people also took the opportunity to enjoy the zoo without paying, it didn't feel as crowded as we expected. We had a wonderful day! The twins LOVED all the animals, even more this time than they did when we visited the Hogle Zoo during the summer. They loved the elephants, giraffes, zebras, birds, etc. We "moo-ed" at some longhorn cattle that moo'ed back to us. We ate our leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches in front of a fountain, and then we finished off our day at the zoo by visiting the animals that William had been asking for the whole trip - monkeys! He talked about the monkeys on the drive to the zoo and the whole time we visited all the other animals.

Once we saw the monkeys, Will's requests turned from "Monkeys?" to "MORE MONKEYS! MORE MONKEYS!" He toned it down a little for this video.

After we got home from the zoo, we put up our Christmas tree (with Anna's help)!In short, this was the best Black Friday EVER! I love our little family!