Thanksgiving in Detroit

At one point in time, my siblings were scattered across every timezone. 

Since my sisters now live in Idaho by me, 

that leaves the oldest, our brother, out in the East by himself.

Luckily for us, Detroit is only a few hours from Pittsburgh. 

So we were able to make it there in time for Thanksgiving.

My brother has four kids, a beautiful wife, and a super fun house.

Genevieve is my brother's 2nd daughter.

She lost her other front tooth while we were there.

Now I wonder what song she will sing at the Christmas talent show?

Meet Annabelle!

A two-year-old ball of fun. 

She will hug and cuddle you to death.

She is always happy and laughing.

Mitchell was her little shadow.

Movie night!

Genevieve will bring the popcorn.

Annabelle and her shadow, Mitchell.

They really liked each other.

Nick's only boy, Isaac.

He is a bit older than Parker, but they were still good friends.

Isaac learned how to play chess from Uncle Richard while we were there.

He challenged everybody to a game...

And I mean everybody.

We really enjoyed setting up Christmas decorations.

Here we have Genevieve, Colette, and Rachel, the oldest of Nick's kids.

We all went to go see FROZEN!

Which means...

When we got home we had to look up how to do a spiral braid like the princesses.

It took Andrea and I, both, with four hands to get these babies done.

We also went to a wonderful Christmas village.

It had fudge shops, a small inn, and a very exciting Christmas store.

Complete with singing tree.

And a bundle of snowmen that sang back-up.

Then we saw SANTA!!

He's got one big lap!

L2R: Mitchell, Richard, Nick, Me, Andrea, Rachel, 

Genevieve, Isaac, Colette, Annabelle, and Parker.

oh yeah, and Santa Claus.

Mitchell is having some separation anxiety.

Mitchell, Rachel, Genevieve, Isaac, Colette, Annabelle, and Parker

Parker and Colette with Santa.

The Skifton's with Santa Claus

This was probably the best Santa I've ever seen, 

aside from the real one, 

After the pictures, the "elves" took us to a giant wooden treasure chest.

Of course Parker exclaimed,

"This looks just like on LINK!"

So he kicked it open and "Da da da daaaaa!"*

There were tokens to get free stuff in the mall.

Like a free cookie.

And then they got a light-saber toy!

I mean I like this Santa a lot. 

So now Christmas is on it's way for sure.

I can't wait.

*I just want to add to anyone who is obsessed with The Legend of Zelda as much as we are in our house, and actually sang the song in your head that plays whenever Link discovers something new in a treasure chest... We love you.