Thanksgiving in Illinois

After Thanksgiving and Black Friday in Kansas City, Scott and I traveled to Illinois to celebrate with his side of the family. Things have been a little iffy between us, so neither of us were looking forward to 6 hours in the car.  It was pretty much him talking and prying and me giving him the silent treatment.  So much fun for both parties involved.  (There needs to be a sarcasm font.) 

Anyways, we left Saturday morning around 10am (after I got my workout in), and got almost an hour away before we realized we had the air mattress in the back of my car --which was supposed to go to Jason and Kelli for the weekend.  So I made a u-turn in the middle of the interstate to head back to KC.  Thankfully we didn't get too far before they said it wasn't a big deal.  (Insert another u-turn...) 

The roads were icy in KC and it was slow going, but it eventually warmed up and cleared off for most of the drive to Colona, Illinois.

We went straight to the bowling ally in Moline just as his extended family was finishing up bowling.  Which was fine with me because I was way too sore to bowl anyways.  And Scott's back was still bothering him.  So, perfect timing. 

We were hardly out of the car before we got back in and went to some little pizza place for dinner.  It was a total hole in the wall, but it was packed.  I wasn't feeling like pizza so I only had one piece, but it tasted like any other greasy pizza.  Clearly I was missing something -- from all the people there it had to be better than that, right?  Look at this place...

The next location was Scott's aunt and uncles home, but we made a pit stop at HyVee first to pick up stuff to make a salad.  Everyone just hung out and played games for the most part.  A couple card games, pool, watched some football.  I watched Frozen with the kids. :)

Sunday morning we went to church (two blocks away), and Scott's sister and brother-in-law did the Advent candle lighting and reading.  His little niece and nephew are just too cute!

There was a potluck lunch after church (so good!) and then we decorated the whole place for Christmas!

I took my bow tying very seriously, obviously. And they looked good when I was done! 

With not much to do in small town Illinois (especially when it's cold!), we grabbed the last two names off the giving tree in the lobby and went to Wal-Mart to get what the kids needed.  Mostly clothes and shoes and coats, but a few books and games, too.

Hopefully it will make some little guys Christmas a little better this year. They'll be styling anyways, that's for sure. ;)

That did't kill much of the afternoon, so we went to the movie and saw Secret In Their Eyes.  I thought it was a good movie, and there was a twist at the end I didn't see coming!

After the movie, we went over to Scott's sisters house to entertain the kids.  Scott made another salad, and we just hung out and played.  I colored with Addi and Scott decorated the tree with Zaiden.  We kinda sorta helped get them to bed, and called it a night.

Scott's parents house, all lit up with Christmas lights:

The next day we got up pretty early and hit the road back to KC.  It was a short trip, but I wanted to get back for Allie's basketball game at 3:30 -- which I learned on the drive home was actually on Tuesday, not Monday.  Oops.

It rained pretty much the entire way from Illinois to KC, sometimes really heavy.  Not so fun to drive in.

The sign said "Ice is frightful, safe arrivals are delightful."  HA!  

Well, we had a safe, delightful arrival back in KC that afternoon.