I'm Thankful for In-Laws!

No, really. The title of this post is not a joke. I love my husband's family and it was our turn to spend Thanksgiving with them this year! We drove up (6 1/2 hours in the car. Mack did surprisingly well!) on Wednesday afternoon and settled in for a nice, long weekend. Thursday we had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with all of the family, and Grandma Palmer (my mother-in-law's mother) was able to come and enjoy it with us. Unfortunately, I didn't get one picture - someone (MACK!) was acting up while we were eating and had me all distracted. That night we played Speed UNO (played basically the same as regular UNO with just a few new rules). Friday, some went out and hit the sales, but I didn't really see anything in the ads that I wanted to get up at 5am for. So, we just lounged around most of the day. Late in the afternoon we hopped on the train and rode it in to Salt Lake to go see the lights at Temple Square. The train ride was fun, the lights were beautiful, but boy, was it crowded, and it took us stopping in at about 10 restaurants before we found one that had less than a 35 minute wait. We got back home at about 9 pm and I think we pretty much called it a night. Gregg had to get some stuff done for work that night and was up until about 3 am. Poor guy. Saturday morning we got up and got ready to get some family pictures done... I can't wait to see how they turned out. That afternoon we had a Benson family Christmas Party/Anniversary Celebration/Reunion, and luckily it was just down the street from home, so we didn't have to travel. Grandpa Serge & Grandma Bondean celebrated 65 years (I think - I have a terrible memory) with family, food, and even Santa came (but sadly we had to leave for a nap before he got there). Also, after we left we heard that Grandpa fell while helping with clean-up and had to go to the hospital, so we've been praying for him. That evening we worried about Grandpa, played some more Speed UNO, and Chad (Gregg's older brother) sure complained a lot about a stomach ache. The next morning (Sunday), we got a phone call letting us know that Chad had gone to the emergency room and was having an appendectomy! So, I guess all the complaining was for good reason. Gregg and Larry (Gregg's dad) rushed to the hospital to give him a priesthood blessing before the surgery, but sadly got there just a little too late - he was already going in. Gregg did get to see Grandpa, though, who's room was just down the hall from Chad's. When Gregg got back, we left for our long drive home. We stopped in Cedar for lunch and we stopped by Angie's (Gregg's sister) house to pick up a cute little green push car she kindly donated to us (Mack loves it!). Mack struggled a bit more on the drive home. When he did fall asleep (around Mesquite), it was only for 30 minutes and then I think he was even more cranky when he woke up! We were happy to finally make it home and relax for the rest of the day. We sure had a great time and I am so thankful for Larry & Jeannette and all they do to accommodate us when we come to visit (I'm sure that just the fact that our little family of 3 sleeps in 3 different rooms was enough to drive any hostess crazy). We didn't get many, but here are some of the pictures we took:

**MACK UPDATE**

The past few weeks Mack has learned to say:

1. Pease (Please)
2. There it is
3. Cool
4. Choo Choo
5. Ooo, Ooo (monkey)
6. Meow
7. Ruff Ruff
8. Duck sound (although, it sounds nothing like quack)
9. Nigh nigh (night night)

Last night, Mack and I were upstairs and he wanted me to get his bear out of his bed for him to carry around (regular occurrence). So I did, and then started heading back down the hall to my room. I turned to see if he was coming and he was right behind me and looked up at me and said "nigh nigh". It was the first time he's ever said it, so I just stared at him blankly for about five seconds until I figured out that he really wanted to go to bed. I couldn't believe it! I said "you want to go night night?", and he turned around and walked to his room. I changed him into his jammies and put him to bed with out one cry of protest from him. It was great.

Also, a couple of weeks ago (11/21), Gregg felt the baby move for the first time. Still no decision on a name, but we'll keep you posted.

Hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings and are enjoying the Christmas season!