Sky of Blue, Sea of Green: Thanksgiving is Officially Unlamed

I'll tell you a secret. I don't really like Thanksgiving. I mean, Thanksgiving doesn't make me unhappy, but it is probably my least favorite holiday. I am a big celebrator, and I guess the reason I don't really like Thanksgiving is because you celebrate it by staying home and eating. Lame! The worst part is that afterwards everyone feels too fat and tired to go anywhere, so you all just lie on the couch in your gluttony for the rest of the night, and I'm like..."This is a holiday?"

Luckily, my parents and sisters agree with me, and every year we go on a quest to "unlame Thanksgiving." We have been working at this for quite a while, and I think we finally have it down to an art. This is what our week consisted of:

Lots of bookstores! The first night Abbie and I were home, we decided to all head to Barnes and Noble for some hot chocolate and book-perusing. It was a perfect cozy start to the holiday, and most everyone had something to read for the week.

Pies at Grandma's! The next day, my mom and sisters and I headed to Ogden to make pies. I'll be honest, I wasn't really involved. I mostly played Apples to Apples with Rachel and Lauren, but it was still a nice gesture.

Date night with Janie! Another confession...I am partial to my youngest sister. Rachel was working, so Janie and I went to visit her at Pace's and had dinner while we bothered her. Then we drove through the Layton lights together multiple times.

These, friends, are the Layton city Christmas lights. I drove through them seven times while I was home. It's because you can't just drive through the tunnel one time. You'd understand if you were from Layton.

The next day was actual Thanksgiving Day!

The day started bright and early with cheering at the neighborhood football game. Do we have an adorable neighborhood or what? The black eye our dad got during the game was a nice Thanksgiving Dinner conversation piece.

We watched the Thanksgiving parade at home and had dinner at our house. It was just our family and our favorite uncle, which means that my mom made EVERYTHING because she is just that champion. I mean, I cut the fruit for the salad.

#worstdaughterever

Then we headed to the zoo! Going to the zoo on Thanksgiving is the best because no one else is there. The animals are happy because it's not 100 degrees. You can talk to the animals because the only other people there are your family members and some Japanese tourists who don't know what you're saying.

Look how close this elephant got to me! Also, they have a new exhibit with seals and polar bears and such. I mean it's not SeaWorld but the seals are pretty cute!

We spent the evening with the Onikis. Aren't they cute? We played Just Dance and wrote group-effort haikus. Really hilarious ones.

Pretty successful evening, and we still had a couple more days to play. So...Rach and I went roller blading in matching outfits....

...watched High School Musical 3, and had spa night. Want to know the best idea ever? You fill the tub with hot water and bubbles and then turn off the lights and put glow sticks in it, then stick your feet in and pretend it's a fancy hot tub at a hotel spa.

Oh, this picture is from right before we had our spa night idea. I can't really explain it.

Saturday was small business Saturday so we headed downtown to our favorite bookstore! If you haven't been to the King's Enlighs bookstore in Salt Lake, and you like bookstores, and you live in Utah...I don't know what your deal is. It's the coziest place you will ever go.