Hello Little Scout || A lifestyle blog by Jamie Sefcik

Thanksgiving 20Eleven

Besides the temperature, Fall is probably my favorite time of the year. It's the combination of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas being all so close to each other. There is just something about cuddling up close to a fire with my hubs with hot cocoa that cannot be beat. This Thanksgiving we headed back to Utah to spend time with both of our amazing families. Being so far away makes me really appreciate the moments I get to spend with them... I know I can't take any moment I have with them for granted. I am so grateful to have such supportive families, they truly are such a blessing.

We left California on Wednesday afternoon around 1:00 knowing deep down the traffic was going to be horrible (but hoping it would be okay).. fortunately, we were wrong! Getting out of LA and San Bernardino area took us a little bit longer but it was definitely not as bad as we were expecting. What usually takes us about 9 hours took us about 11 hours. You could say we were beat!

Holidays are usually a crazy time for us since we have 3 family's to distribute our time between so we do what we call "The Family Shuffle". Unfortunately during this shuffle I am always forgetting to take pictures but none the less, it was no doubt a Thanksgiving to remember! Thanksgiving morning I woke up and went over to my mom's to help her with the Thanksgiving preparation for a couple of hours and then back over to Brady's parents house to help with their preparation. If you know Brady's family you know they are always cooking for a large crowd! Their dinner included all the staples of a perfect Thanksgiving dinner including Turkey, Gravy, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes (which I had been craving for about 2 weeks before we left... boy was I satisfied!). To finish everything off John made some amazing eclairs. It was so much fun to catch up on some much needed girl talk with my amazing sisters :)

Around 4:30 we headed over to my Mom's house for our next Thanksgiving dinner. This year we almost missed out on having my brother Cam with us since he was on call back in Arizona. The doctor he was doing rotations with felt bad that his whole family was gone and he sent him up to Utah to be with us (Whoo Hoo!) We were grateful to have his wife Amy and cute baby Ethan to join us as well. I definitely don't get to see their cute faces enough! Kent was on duty at the Fire Station that day so he wasn't able to be with us, but we were thinking of him! Our Thanksgiving dinner included the best of the best: Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Pickles, Rolls and an amazing berry pie that was to die for! I know I can always count on my mom to make a killer menu :)

It is a tradition in my family to go to a movie the night of Thanksgiving and this year was no exception! After we cleaned up we headed up to Thanksgiving Point (fitting right ;)) and saw Hugo. I knew nothing about the movie going into it so wasn't sure what to expect. The verdict? BAD. I usually am not very picky but for some reason... it was just weird! I was also super tired and fell asleep through some of it which might have contributed to that :)

After we got back from the movie to say that Brady and I were tired is an understatement! If you know me you know that shopping has a dear spot in my heart :) but... I just couldn't bring myself to go out and shop all night his year with Brady's sisters. The next day my mom and I went out and still ended up finding some killer deals... score!

Friday night we spent the night with my dad starting off with dinner at the amazing Cafe Rio which we miss so much out in California! There is one that is by the LA Airport but we don't go out that way very often so when we get to Utah, that is a must! Afterwords we spent some time putting up the Christmas tree and getting dessert at Kneaders. I love being with family!

Although I completely failed at taking pictures pretty much the entire trip, I did end up taking some family pictures of Brady's beautiful sister Julie and her adorable family... they are all so photogenic. I love it!

We are already counting down the days until we go back (Only 2 weeks!!)