Pictures of Egypt: Three Thanksgivings, and then some!

I ate turkey about six times last week, I think. First, on Tuesday the ladies in our life group cooked a full Thanksgiving dinner for the guys and served them over at Naldo's. There were a lot of people in that living room, which made it a lot of fun. Then, on Wednesday Matthew and I headed to Pella. We stayed up until about 1:00 helping his mom and sister cook food for the next day's feast. So on Thanksgiving Day we ate turkey again, this time celebrating with the Van Zante's. His aunt had actually rented a small meeting room at a hotel in town for the meal, and so that the girls could go swimming. It was so fun to watch their excitement as they kept running back and forth between the big pool and the hot tub. Swimming on Thanksgiving has to be pretty cool for a kid! And then that night Matt's mom, Arlene, made us some turkey soup for dinner. Round 3.

On Friday we had a get-together with Arlene's side of the family over at Ben and Michelle's, Matt's brother and sister-in-law. For lunch we had turkey again, but really, too much of a good thing ain't bad. It was all pretty delicious. We had so much fun that day with all of the nieces. There are five of them, all five and under- Hannah, Livia, Jaeda (Matt's brother Ben's kids), Elise and Rachel (his sister Kristine's). I'm really excited about this whole auntie thing! Friday evening, after everyone else left, Matt and I stayed with Ben and Michelle and their girls. We went on a walk together (the sunset that night was absolutely gorgeous), played Taboo with Ben and Michelle, and then after the girls went to bed the four of us just sat and talked for awhile, which was so nice. I really enjoyed getting to know them better. They wanted us to tell them the whole story of our relationship, which we did, and then they told us theirs. Michelle said something about how it's so cool to hear the different ways that God moves in people, and I definitely agree! Oh, and we had turkey sandwiches for supper. Round 5.

On Saturday we went to Amana and had another Thanksgiving feast with my family. I really loved being with everybody- Mom, Dad, Natalie, Kevin, Nancy, Matt and Me. It was the first time we've been together as a family since Natalie and Kevin's wedding. We enjoyed all of Dad's tastiest foods, and then went on a brief walk to work it all off! We went up to Cedar Rapids and saw the new A Christmas Carol movie (in 3D!). That story gets me every time. After the movie, I said, "I don't know about you, but I can't eat any more turkey. Let's get some pizza!", which we did, and after Pizza Hut we came home and Natalie and Kevin and Matt and I stayed up until almost 1:00 playing Mario on the Wii.

It was a wonderful trip, and now I'm so excited that the Christmas season is here! I just can't help but smile when I think of all of the fun things coming up in the next few weeks. And there has definitely been so much to be thankful for this year. Here are some pictures from the weekend...