Our Thanksgiving and Birthday of Awesomeness

If I had to choose one word to describe our long weekend, it would be:  RELAXING.

This is what happens when we don't shut one of the van doors all the way:  The battery dies and we create another memorable beginning to our Thanksgiving.

After a delicious feast at the Haddock's (of which this post is in want of pictures), the kids were able to run around and shoot a potato gun.  I stayed inside to chat and play games.

We went home with one extra kid and spent the next day putting up Christmas decorations and cutting out snowflakes.  Cutting out snowflakes is one of my new favorite Christmas-y things.

Hours later, Little Miss put up the star:

And the four of us added the little details.
Our ornament collection grows each year and it's fun to talk about the memories brought on by each one.

A few RELAXING days later, it was my turn to celebrate my Birthday.  I blew out my 30 candles (and for the first time, I forgot to make a wish before doing so; which is a bummer because I only used one breath to accomplish the task.  Maybe there's a post birthday-candle-blowing-out clause that says, if I forget, I can have a wish anyway ... Maybe, instead of using the word "forget" the phrase: "concentrating so hard at keeping children out of reach of fire" ... would be used instead.)

Angel food cake, fresh whipped cream and raspberries were the chosen birthday cake-y items.

After cake, came presents.

This year, I got the perfect gifts ... 

If you need me, I can be found wrapped in my cozy blanket.  I may not pay much attention to you because the book I'm reading is so good. 

The end.

Pause and Un-Pause

Tonight at dinner, B asked me if I would play "Chest" with him during Thanksgiving break.  

Mr. P:  "It's not Chest, it's called CHESS.  SSS."

B:  "Chesssss.  Okay." 

Me:  "That would be fun.  I'll play." 

Mr. P:  "Do you know what a chest is?"

B:  "Duh.  Of course I know what a chest is."

Me:  "What's a chest?"

B:  "Mom ... Don't make me say it."

Me:  "Say it ..."

B:  "It's those round things that you move around."

PREGNANT PAUSE.  

Yup.  "Those. Round. Things. That. You. Move. Around."  Yup.  Mr. Pea and I exchanged an exaggerated glance.  In that glance we had a silent conversation: 

[Me:  What the???]

[Mr. P:  Heck if I know.]

[Both of us:  Do something!  Calmly!]

UN-PAUSE

Me:  "Huh?  I don't know what you're talking about."

B:  "The game with those round things."

Me, recognition dawning:  "Oh ... Are they red and black?"

B:  "The one's we have are red and white."

Mr. P:  "CHECKERS.  They're called CHECKERS."

Apparently, we need to work on teaching our kids the proper name of the games we play.  

We love to play games!!  The boys have been playing a lot of CHESS lately.

A Few Highlights

Little Miss, B and I were watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  

When this guy came on the screen, Little Miss says:  "Mamma!  Mamma!  Look, a Princess!"

Drooling over the Black Friday ads from our favorite stores:

Matching pink finger nails - Little Miss' choice:

A delicious dinner with good friends (our family away from family):

One goofy kid and one serious kid in an otherwise great family picture (B to the photographer, "Did you get my funny face?"):

This conversation:

....

B:  "Mom, I know what we should do when we get home."

Me:  "Oh yeah?  What's that?"

B:  "We should brush our teeth and go to bed."

....

We love our kids.  I think they like going to bed as much as we like them to.

Little Miss does have a pillowcase, she always takes if off before she goes to bed ...

To end this perfectly relaxing day, the Mr. and I are going to cuddle up and work on a crossword puzzle because that's one of our favorite past times.  

Happy Thanksgiving night!

The Short List

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day.  In lieu of this season, here's a short list of things for which I am grateful:

I am grateful for my baking partner:

Two boys who would rather play with marbles than watch TV:

Passed sight words, a fulfilled promise and favorite childhood toys:

Visiting friends:

Little tables, little stools, sippy cups and shared experiences:

My sweet husband and a son who asks:  "Isn't Dad the greatest?  He does so much for us."

We are grateful for eternal families, best friends, good food, warm homes ... for everything we have.  This ends the short list and marks the beginning of our long one.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving break

On Wednesday, we had opportunities to learn ...

After we learned, we went hiking ...

We tried to find a river, but wandered on train tracks instead ...

We followed a diamond ...

And enjoyed our time there ...

Wednesday was beautiful.

On Thursday we played football ...

Then we went to dinner and gave many Thanks ...

On Friday, the boys went fishing and when they returned,

we decided to dance ...

After a yummy dinner with two men in suits,

We decorated a tree ...

We also stared each other in the face ...

Then we recommenced the decorating ...

With some help, even our littlest was able to participate ...

Afterward, we ate some chocolate ...

On Saturday, one of us celebrated a birthday ...

Then we went to Kansas City.

On Sunday morning, we went to church.

That evening, some friends came over for dinner ...

AND THAT'S WHAT WE DID ON

OUR THANKSGIVING BREAK.

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we celebrated in our home surrounded by good friends and delicious food. We had a blast!!

Unfortunately we didn't get pictures of everything, but we did get a few good images.

Here they are.

.............

To the Mr., Thanksgiving is incomplete without fruit salad. This year, he got to make it.

He even made a point to ensure the Mrs. had a bowl of the cream covered fruit sans marshmallows.

The Mrs. decided they needed to locate and purchase the LARGEST turkey they could find.

The lucky bird weighed in at 21.6 lb! It was moist, tender and juicy ... it was just as it should be.

Our assignment for the dinner was to provide the turkey, dressing/stuffing and a pie.

The Mrs. baked an apple pie ... Mmm, apple pie ...

This is an image of the kids table. We decided butcher paper and crayons might help keep the
kiddies interested in sitting at the table longer than 5 minutes.
Thank you, Ikea for creating fanciful kids diningware!

The Mrs. really liked the kids table, so here's another picture.

The adult table was elegant. One of the ladies designed and made the placecard holders.
There are so many talented women here, we were priviledged to welcome three of them in our home.

Here are the kiddies sitting down for the feast.

After eating, the kiddies wanted to watch Wall-E ...


Pictured, from R to L: Jordan, Jack, B, Rylan and Aubrey. Missing: Adam and Tiffany (Jordan's father and mother). Brayden, Kate, Kristin, and Jared (Jack's brother, sister, mother and father, respectively). Jeff and Rachel (Aubrey and Rylan's dad and mom). The Mrs., Mr. and Baby Girl.

Food not pictured: stuffing/dressing, candied yams, green bean casserole, 3 pumkin pies, 2 pumpkin rolls, 1 banana cream pie, dinner rolls, egg nog, apple cider, cheese ball, crackers, veggie platter, mashed potatos ... (Sidenote: Next year, group photo and food photo.)

Our stomachs would like to thank all the people who contributed to filling it this Thanksgiving. This mess of a blog entry is dedicated to you (the people, not our stomachs) ...

Thank you, Salamat, Gracias, Merci, Tak