Cleveland Thanksgiving

We've had wonderful Thanksgivings here in Kentucky. Our first we spent with the Valgardsons and the Birds. The second was spent with Gosnells. The third with the Barratts and Robinsons. We've loved them all and never felt too bad about being far from family.

It was fun this year to finally be with family though. We're lucky to be only a 5 1/2 hour drive from Keith's brother Kirk. Granted the drive took us about 8 hours because of traffic but we made it to Cleveland the day before Thanksgiving in time for dinner. Kenzie was immediately in love with being surrounded by cousins and Clara kept busy practicing stairs. 

Thanksgiving itself was a wonderful meal. Keith and I were in charge of pies, potatoes and veggies so we kept busy prepping food while the kids played. I think our favorite part of the meal were the sweet potatoes. Later that night, me, Joy, and her cousin Sue hit a couple of stores. We got some good deals and didn't have to stay out very late.

I'm not one to take pics of food and meals and all that so I don't have any pictures until Friday when we went to Kirtland, OH. The girls shopped a little first, then met the men and kids at Kirtland. We missed most of the tour so we joined up with another.

The Newel K. Whitney store was definitely the highlight.

On the first floor they displayed goods that you would have been able to find. They also had an original book of receipts which would be fun to look through if you knew of any ancestors to search for.

Upstairs, they showed us Joseph and Emma's dining room as well as the room where the school of Prophets met. The spirit was strong and the sister missionaries did a wonderful job telling the history and revelation linked to this special building.

The visitors center had their nativities set up for the Christmas season. There were hundreds from all over the world.

We decided to spend the $3 to check out the Kirtland temple. It is a beautiful building and I loved the architecture inside. The Church of Christ owns this building so the tour was informative but definitely missing the feel that the LDS church sites had. We also didn't get to go to the top because of our group size.

We left on Saturday and were able to see snow before we left. It was really bitter outside so we didn't really get to play in it.