Steven and I went to Okie land for the Giving of Thanks and an early Christmas celebration. We had SO much fun getting to spend time with the ENTIRE family. I really don’t even know where to begin or how to sum up the trip (truth be told, I’ve started this post over like 4 times). I flew in the Saturday before Thanksgiving, which gave me the weekend to spend some quality time with my parents, Benj, Gretch, Yadon and Brooks before everyone else arrived.

On Sunday, I went to church with my parents and tried to act like I understood Spanish. For those of you who don’t know, my dad is the Spanish Branch President/Minister. I told my parents I wanted to make them dinner that night since they would be constantly feeding all 14 of us the rest of the week, so I made this yummy baked, cheesy tortellini recipe Steven has made for me…everyone loved it, as long as we didn’t think about the caloric intake. You’ve gotta love Giada’s (Everyday Italian on the Food Network) recipe. Sunday night, the rest of the family came in to town (except for Steven that comes later).

Monday and Tuesday were basically spent playing pirates outside on the tree-set, playing football, building things with Le-gos, watching Thomas & Diego and building forts. I remember when I was younger, my brothers and I would get a ton of blankets, stools and chairs and make “huge” forts in our family room; it was so fun to be doing it with my nephews 17 yrs. later. What can I say, I have 7.75 nephews (Yvette is due in January). Trey and Braden are at such a fun, interactive stage, and it is SO fun to see little Yadon running around trying to keep up with his “buddies.”

Tuesday night we had Yvette’s baby shower. Yvette got SO many cute little baby clothes and goodies. Did you know they’ve now invented glow-in-the-dark binkies? GENIUS! I’m not gonna lie, it got me pretty excited for when it’s my turn, which is still in the far-off future. Steven and I gave little Brody dinosaur PJs (I love little baby butts/diapers in PJs!).

Wednesday morning, I got to have brunch with the Hizzies. For those that don’t know, the “hizzies” are three of my best girlfriends from high school whom I absolutely love! I love when ever we get together because it doesn’t matter how long it’s been since we’ve seen each other, we pick-up right where we left off and can still laugh at some of the most ridiculous things. If you would like to know where the word “hizzy” originated from see yours truly. I understand Snoop Dogg has the word “hizzle,” but I’ve “TM’ed”  “Hizzy” or “HZ” for short. Wednesday night, Steven FINALLY arrived and the family was officially complete! To celebrate this occasion, the family took our traditional trip to Ted’s Escondido…THE BEST tex-mex in your life. I seriously think I could have a salsa IV!

 Thursday was spent watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, cooking, baking, eating and watching football. Welcome to the Bowman home for a true Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is not complete without my Dad’s homemade stuffing and my Aunt Nene’s baby-pearl onion casserole…YUM! Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the other dishes o’ plenty, but those two make it Thanksgiving for me. It was so nice to be with the family and share what we each were thankful for and enjoy one another’s company.

Friday, the MEN went and cut wood for Mom & Dad’s fireplace and Brad & Yvette’s fireplace. Steven had never done this before, so it was a new experience for him with many more to come when he’s hanging with the Bowman Brothers.

Friday night we celebrated Christmas…Yes, Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. Because we’re going on a cruise the week before Christmas, everyone is doing Christmas with their in-laws so mom said, “I’ll be darned if I don’t get to see my babies open their presents…we’ll just do it early,” and early is just what we did. After our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of lasagna (or sometimes steak) we had a little “dancing night club” in the front room; it was so spontaneous and FUN! Everyone just started dancing as we blared Christmas classics by Michael Buble, Nat King Cole, etc. through the surround sound. Trey was adorable and was “serenading” all of us. He climbed on an ottoman and started swinging his hips and mouthing the words…he is such a ham. It was such a special moment to share with everyone…I just think my family is so freaking awesome!

Benj and Gretch hooked us up for our next party (did you know you can do BBQ sauce in the fountain?) Steven can’t STOP watching his Planet Earth DVDs from mom and dad. I told mom he would love them, but her feelings were validated when the DVDs were on Oprah’s Favorite Things show; I can’t wait to start cooking with my new pots and culinary gadgets! All in all, we had a FABULOUS trip home. Dad and mom are the host and hostess of the mostess. We SO appreciate all of the time, cooking and Jambas when we come to visit! I have so many cute pictures that I still want to post, so I’ll probably ask Steven to create a slide show on our photo album page so stay tuned!