Thanksgiving

We had such a fun Thanksgiving.  My sister, Becky, and my brother, David, visited for the holiday.  They arrived on Wednesday night.  We went to the Turkey Trot on Thursday morning.  David ran it with Thomas, Mason and me.  I was glad to have his company, because they were ready to walk after ¾ of a mile.  I guess I should have signed us up for the 1 mile run.  It was nice to have him encouraging them on, for the most part.  (He thought it was funny to teach them to say “sucka!” as they passed other runners walkers.  They didn’t understand why they would call people “lollipops” though, so it was lost on them.  I was so glad.  I told them not to listen to what Uncle David said.)  Becky took pictures of us.  It was really fun to have them there with me this year.  Thomas and Mason said they don’t want to do it again next year.  I told them they can do the 1 mile fun run instead.  They thought that sounded better.  

We arrived just in time for the start.  Yay!

We're running!  (Sort of.)  Notice Christopher Columbus and his three ships.
(??? Shouldn't they have been the Mayflower and some pilgrims?)

The boys were so glad it was over.

It's fun to play in leaves, but the adults always win at leaf-kicking.

After the Turkey Trot, we got ready for the day and David played Legos with the boys.  We did some activities I saw on Pinterest.  I was hoping to make place-cards, but the turkeys weren’t done drying in time.  I quickly put together some pilgrim hats.  In retrospect, I think it was a little overkill, but they were cute and the kids loved it.

We had to assemble the turkeys on their backs
so that they would stay put while the frosting dried.

Thomas added some finishing touches while
Megan ate the frosting that acted as glue for the turkeys.

What happened to the pilgrim?

I really enjoyed the preparation of Thanksgiving dinner.  It was fun to be in the kitchen with my husband and siblings, working together on different dishes, talking and laughing with one another.  Becky made sweet potatoes from scratch, and they turned out perfectly!  Just like Mom’s.  (As in, the first batch of marshmallows boiled into the potatoes, so we had to add more to brown on top of the potatoes.  Delicious!)  I wish I had taken a picture of the finished product, but we were in a hurry so I didn't think of it. 

Becky is cooking!

Jenn and Aaron joined us just in time for dinner, bringing with them mashed potatoes and a ham almost as large as the turkey, because that’s Aaron’s family tradition.  Every year I look for a 6 lb turkey.  This would definitely have been the year to find it.  We bought an 18 lb turkey instead.  That is a lot of meat.  (I don’t even like turkey.)  I think next year, we’ll just go with the ham…  maybe a token turkey, if we can find a little one.  

Just a glimpse of all the food we had to eat.  Crazy!

It looks like a thumbs-up from David!
(And yes, that's Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider, our "nice dinner" staple.) 

The classic pose of Michael and me stuffing our faces.

Jenn, Aaron, and what they're most thankful for: Ammon.

Our little monkeys at the standard "kid's table."

We had planned on eating at 3:00 pm and going to see a movie at 5:00 pm.  Since we didn’t actually sit down to dinner until 3:30 pm and the movie wound up showing at 4:30 pm, we had to race through dinner.  The food was delicious, though.  (It was nice on Friday night to sit down and leisurely eat the leftovers.) 


After we cleaned up and put the food away, we went to see Puss in Boots.

It is so nice to finally be able to watch a movie without worrying about containing our  children from running up and down the aisles or swinging on the bars that delineate the wheelchair section, or having to take them to the potty ten times, or explaining everything to them throughout the show.  They just sit and watch now!

When we got home, we wrote down things we were thankful for on paper circles and hung them on a Thanksgiving tree (another idea from Pinterest).  It was a great way to get everyone to express their gratitude for their blessings.

I thought it was ironic and sweet that Mason wrote
that he was thankful for his brother even though he had
tormented Thomas most of the way home from the movie.
The picture in the upper right corner is Megan's entry.
She drew the Thankful Tree, because she was thankful for it! 

Our Thankful Tree!

After the kids were in bed, the adults perused the Black Friday ads to see what deals were worth chasing.  Michael and I got up at four to get some Christmas shopping done.  We didn't have a lot to get though, so we were home by seven and went back to bed.  And that was our Thanksgiving.  :-)