Thanksgiving ’09

This Thanksgiving we headed up to Grandma and Grandpa Tanner’s home in Ogden to spend time with the extended Tanner family. Grandma and Grandpa did a great job organizing dinners, events and activities to make sure we all had a wonderful extended weekend.

Before leaving we had a little time to hang out with Coleman and Lacey (down from BYU-I). Coleman suggested we hit all-you-can-eat-night at Wingers and I was completely feelin’ that. We took this picture before they had to wheel us boys out of the joint.

We also acted on a little pre-Christmas spirit and made sugar cookies with Nathan and Kendra. Which we ended up eating all ourselves, despite our best intentions to share.

Up in Ogden a few of us went out bowling, and it was a pretty awesome event. Here’s a great group shot of the boys:

On Thanksgiving day grandma organized a trip to the temple, where we took this neat family picture.

By the time everyone arrived for the dinner, we had quite the gathering…so much so that we had to borrow a bunch of tables and chairs from the local church. The food and company were terrific, and we found ourselves incredibly grateful for an untold number of blessings in our lives.

After eating we headed over to the annual Tanner Turkey Shoot…a double-elimination, skeet shooting contest. There were some surprise contenders, but Houston ended up taking the trophy with a particularly strong showing.

That night I had a pretty epic adventure of my own. I’d never participated in any Black Friday shopping madness, but decided that it was about time. I saw a killer deal at Wal-Mart for an HP laptop that dirt cheap and light years ahead of my current machine (the $298 one pictured below).  It was totally worth it, so long as you were willing to pay the price in sleepless hours and hysterical crowds. Which I was.

Coleman and I arrived at 10:50 pm or so, and he kept me company until they let the official line form, from which point 22 of us were cordoned off in the chilly produce isle to wait until they issued the laptops at 5:30 am the next day. Luckily Kristie suggested I bring a couple big body pillows to sit on, which turned out to be the best idea ever. It was a long, long night. We played Bop-It, complained, tried to stay warm, and shared stories with the complete strangers that gradually became friends. At long last I got my machine, and Coleman came, bleary-eyed, to pick me up by 6:00 am. He was quite a good sport.

All in all it was a terrific weekend that was full of highlights, and we left it feeling very thankful indeed..