A Life Wrapped In Pink: Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! Papa and Grandma Clark flew to CA (for the second year in a row now) and spent the week with us. Rhonda and Larry were kind enough to watch Kenley, while Blaine and I had the entire day to OURSELVES to shop and go out to dinner. It is amazing how relaxing and peaceful it is to shop without the little bug! After wrapping up some Christmas shopping at Toys R Us, we headed to South Coast Plaza to shop some more and dine. We stopped at ANQI to share a bottle of wine and to grab a quick appetizer before shopping. You see, I like to get Blaine a little tipsy before I ask him what our budget is for Kenley's Christmas and for my Christmas gift. I find he tends to allow me to spend more freely when he has had a drink or two :) As we were soaking up the alone time, I told Blaine, "this is so perfect...I feel like this is too good to be true!" I know what you're thinking, "Wow, they don't get out much!" However, you have to understand that when you live away from family, even getting to go on a date to the mall is a very special treat! This is partially my fault as I am very particular about who I leave my little sweetie with. Anyway, just as I was saying this we got a phone call from Blaine's mom telling us that Kenley had thrown up :( Of course, I wanted to run home immediately and comfort my little girl. However, Blaine convinced me to let his parents take care of her. Overall, we had a wonderful date and look forward to our next one!

The rest of our Thanksgiving week was pretty relaxed. We spent a lot of time going on walks around the lake near our house, enjoying the beautiful weather (literally 80s), and spending the day at The Grove (which has become a Thanksgiving tradition of ours). The Grove is an outdoor shopping mall with a fabulous atmosphere and amazing restaurants. During the Holiday season, Christmas music is humming through the center, and on two different occasions during the night fake snow falls down. While at The Grove, Kenley visited with Santa! We have it on video and I'll try to upload it in an upcoming blog.