Our Weekend of Giving Thanks: A Photo Essay

Wow...what a wonderful holiday we had with a houseful of Gray's! We have so much to be thankful for this year; with the birth of our first child, Kristoffer's job, our church plus so many other things God has blessed our family with. This year was special, because for the first time since we got married we were able to celebrate with our family on Thanksgiving. Enjoy the pictures as we relive our holiday....

The whole family arrived on Wednesday afternoon, and they couldn't wait to smooch on the little guy!

Thanksgiving started early, but Dana had every detail planned...Appetizers were served at 11 and the big meal at 2! Everyone helped with something; Emily made green bean casserole, Terry made her mom's dressing and Kamaron, Kyler & Zach cut up the vegetables.

Kim and Terry raised turkeys this year, and they brought us up one of the big guys for us to enjoy! It was so big, it barely fit into our roaster.

Needless to say we ate...

...and ate...

...and ate some more!

Friday night we went downtown Minneapolis for the annual Holidazzle Parade. The parade runs every Thursday-Saturday between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Friday was the first night for the parade and the streets were packed with people, who all began to cheer when the parade started.

This year, Target was the corporate sponsor for the parade and to kick-off the parade "Bullseye" was the Grand Marshall for the parade. It was pretty cool to see the hometown "celebrity"!

It was a beatiful night to be out for the parade, but we were still afraid that the Karterman would get cold. So, while Terry, Dana and Emily went shopping on Friday, his grandma picked him out this adorable snowsuit. We call it his "monkey suit", because the hood looks like a monkey face and there is even a tail sewn on the back!

Saturday afternoon, we decided to go bowling. All fall we had watched a new bowling alley being built in Burnsville, and we couldn't wait to bowl in a new bowling alley! However, it seemed that everyone in B-ville had the same idea, because the wait was over an hour for a lane. We weren't going to wait around for a lane so we went to an older place in town. There was only one lane available, so all 8 of us bowled on one lane.

Gray men are rather competitive at everything, so naturally bowling was a huge competition! Kamaron was the only one who didn't have to worry....he blew us all away. Kristoffer and Zach ended up both beating their wives by one point.

Everyone left early Sunday morning, and this is how Karter felt after everyone left ...worn out from playing too much!

Thank you for a great Thanksgiving!