Gifts From Above: Thanksgiving with our Cousins

We have all had such an amazing week, filled with family, food, and fun. We celebrated Thanksgiving with Miller's family, as we do every year. His dad always comes back to the U.S. in November because his family commemorates the passing of his mom. While we don't participate in the memorial ceremony, we always attend the family gathering where they celebrate Thanksgiving at the same time. This year my brother-in-law, Manh was visiting from Virginia, along with his two kids, Dat and Kim Anh. I LOVE this family! They are so lovable and fun. Dat and Kim Anh got to spend a few days at our house, and Ly (Mai's sister) decided to join us. The house was full of kids, laughter, wonderful smells of baking, and we all had so much fun. I decided we should all make gingerbread houses and men as a family activity. So we found a recipe online for homemade gingerbread, and Ly and Mai excitedly volunteered to do the baking. They did an awesome job! We each decorated our own gingerbread person, and all the girls decorated a gingerbread house (the boys were too anxious to get back to their game of pool). Once we put it all together, we had an entire gingerbread family and village. All of the kids did a great job, and it was neat to see their individual creativiy. The house smelled so yummy of ginger and cinnamon as the cookies baked, and we listened to Christmas music, sipped on hot cocoa and tea, and ate candy canes. The house always feels so much more cozy when it's full of people, added by the glow of the lights on the Christmas tree. Here are some pictures of our fun-filled week, along with a video clip of some commentary by my niece, Kim Anh, future anchor woman. :)
Ly's house: