Thanksgiving 2012

Todd and I took this past week off work for a short staycation and a road trip to Phoenix to spend a couple of days with family. It’s now Sunday night and I’m not sure where the week went! I wish I had another week off!

We left for Arizona on Wednesday morning. The drive over was almost exactly 6 hours, with a stop for lunch in El Centro. Wednesday night’s dinner was at Todd’s cousin Kathleen’s house in Gilbert, AZ. She had a nice spread of chili, cheesy potatoes, chicken noodle soup, and two salads. Lots of food for everyone. And by everyone, I mean EVERYONE. Todd’s mom’s sister Charlsie is already a great-grandma! She has three daughters and they have 11 children combined, and some of them have babies too. So the house was crowded with lots of people.

Before last week, Todd had announced to his parents that he was going to make his Triple-Chocolate Mousse Cake for Thanksgiving. Somehow this chocolate cake took on a life of its own, and everyone was anxious to see it and taste it. Todd and his mom Sylvia were in the kitchen for a couple of hours making it!





On Thanksgiving Day, we all got up early to participate in the Mesa Turkey Trot 10K Run. I haven’t run over 4 miles in a while, so I was curious to see if I could run it well. Almost the whole family ran/walked the 10K/6.2 miles! Here we were just arriving at the start line.


This is me in the extra-long bathroom line before the race!


I ran the 10K in 1:10:34. I had predicted 1:10 so I was pretty close.


Todd, on the other hand, finished in 49:56 and set a PR for the 10K.


After going back to the hotel to shower and clean up, we went to Aunt Charlsie and Uncle Dick’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. I forgot to take photos of the big spread. This was my plate. I tried not to overeat.


Todd’s dad and Todd enjoying the Thanksgiving feast.


After dinner we hung out in the backyard.


Todd and his cousin Julie.


We went back to Kathleen’s house so that we could eat the Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake! The bottom layer is flourless chocolate cake. Middle layer is chocolate mousse. Top layer is white chocolate mousse. Everyone loved it! In fact, they didn’t bring it over to Aunt Charlsie’s house because they didn’t want the kids to eat it all, LOL!



On Friday morning we had breakfast with Todd’s parents at the hotel before leaving for our drive home. They had a Christmas tree made of tumbleweeds at the hotel! Todd and his dad thought it was pretty cool.


Todd’s parents posing in front of the tumbleweed tree.


The top of the tree. (Yes, the sky was very blue in Arizona.)


The hotel we stayed at.


We drove home and it took almost exactly six hours again. With lots of views like this, in the middle of nowhere.


Guess who was so happy to have Todd home? Noodle.