My Thanksmas

by Kaitlynn Courtright

I had a super time with my family in Michigan for our annual Thanksmas celebration. I wanted to tell you all about it.

First, I got to spend some special time with my Nana. I don't get to see her much so I soaked in all the time I could get with her. And did you know I can say "Nana" very well? Yeah, it's an easy one for me.



I also got to eat lots of yummy food. That's what Thanksmas is all about, you know. Of course, I tend to be rather picky so I usually stick with the basics. Bananas are one of my faves these days.



I got to enjoy lots of playtime at my Aunt Patti and Uncle John's house.



Probably, no, definitely my favorite thing the entire trip was hanging out with my cousin Ryan's big puppa. His name is Riley and he is at least 3 times as big as I am.



No matter what was going on the entire week, I mostly just wanted to play with the puppa.



But enough about me. Let me introduce you to some of my cousins. I usually only get to see them once a year so we have to soak in some good quality time together during Thanksmas. This is my cousin, Lennyn. She is a couple months older than I am and we had so much fun hanging out together.





One thing I'll say about Lennyn: I think she likes my Daddy. She always smiled really big when he came around. (I don't blame her. He makes me smile, too.)



Back to my cousins.... I was lucky enough to get 2 new cousins this year. Caleb (here with his Nana)



...And Leighton.



Leighton has a big brother just like I do. His name is Liam. Connor and Liam have a lot of fun together doing boy things.



Our entire extended family of 30+ people is hosted by Aunt Patti and Uncle John every year for Thanksmas. Aunt Patti always finds everyone a place to stay so that we don't have to pay for a room somewhere. She is the hostest with the mostest!



Of course, I was super thankful to have lots of fun family time during our trip.



I love getting one-on-one time with my Mommy and Daddy.





I also got to play with my big brothers a lot. Except when they were busy preparing the Thanksmas feast.



The only bad part of the trip was the day after our Thanksmas celebration. Daddy and Kevin got really sick and spent most of the day Friday doing this:



Luckily they both recovered quickly and then it was time to head home (after a quick stop at McDonald's).



Oh, and one more thing. Did you know that the big Chicago airport has a play area for kids? How cool is that? Mommy sure wishes they had one of these at every airport!





After a quick bus ride back to the car, we made it home. Yay!



I sure had fun at Thanksmas! Now, I'm off to start making my list for Santa!