Thanksgiving 2016

Husband had to work late on Wednesday but the girls had the day off.  So we kicked off our holiday weekend with a pancake pajama party with some neighborhood friends.  We ate, we played, it was relaxed and lots of fun.  After all the friends left, we did some chores, ran some errands and got everything packed for a long weekend at Grammy’s house.  It was dark by the time husband got home and a snowstorm had just begun so I was glad he drove (but it was beautiful!)  We picked up two of our nieces on the way and tucked them into the car as well.  We got to Grammy and Papa’s just in time for a quick round of hugs and got all the girls in bed. (baby Z had to stay up and play awhile, he’s such a ham!)

Thursday was wonderfully spent playing and being lazy.  We postponed Thanksgiving dinner til Friday when more family could be there.  So in the meantime, we perused Black Friday ads, watched movies, played and had a fantastic Pie Day.  I made chicken pot pie for dinner while Grammy supplied four kinds of pies for dessert (so much food and so good).  Between servings of pie, we embarked on an epic conquest for world domination—of which, I won!  Grammy and I played Risk as a team against Husband, Papa and two friends spending the day with us.  Despite our limited experience, we conquered the world.  The girls played so good the whole time and were super cute setting up tea parties, reading books and playing in the toys.  Especially adorable was E and her cousin Afton, who is almost her age but half her size.  They played house together, taking very good care of their babies and E read several books to her in a very sweet and animated “storyteller” game. 

On Friday morning, we had our traditional pumpkin French toast bake for breakfast and then husband took the girls in the Jacuzzi while Grammy and I started cooking.  (except the turkeys.  The men started those in the smoker even before breakfast and the smell drifted in to tantalize us all day.) Family trickled in and the girls were thrilled to see cousins.  They had a blast playing and built a huge disco blanket fort and assigned everyone jobs to create their own little community.  Grammy engaged all the kids in a scavenger hunt with fantastic Thanksgiving themed games.  Dinner was amazing as we gathered around three long banquet tables to fit our wonderful and wonderfully crazy family.  We ate and ate and ate and played more games including a left/right mystery present game which was absolutely hilarious and the kids built race cars out of candy.  Eventually some family drifted away and some settled in to spend the night.  In the end we did very little shopping and had a great Thanksgiving day.

The kids were awake way too early on Saturday morning, especially the younger ones that haven’t learned the beauty of sleeping in yet.  More food, more playing and an unfortunately early departure took our family home to attend to dance commitments.  The girls were so sad to leave cousins but on the bright side, we stopped at a ski sale on the way home and were able to finish getting L and A set up for this season.  At home I took L to dance practice and we ran a few errands.  During L’s dinner break, we got our Christmas tree and then I hurried L over to the tree lighting ceremony.  I watched while they rehearsed onstage and then waited for the show to start.  The dance company performed a preview of the Nutcracker, just a few of the dances which just happened to include the mice scene.  So L got to dance in costume on stage and had a blast.  Since it was arranged short notice and over a holiday weekend, they were short on dancers and invited some audience members to participate.  So L got to have a volunteer shadow her through a few dance moves and taunting Clara.  The company also performed the Chinese dance and A got chosen as a volunteer.  She got to be part of the dragon and was ecstatic!  She has been so disappointed when we realized her dance class doesn’t perform in the winter show (I assumed her age’s classes would be in the preshow, as they have in previous years.  Turns out, they are not this year and she could have auditioned for Nutcracker but I misunderstood and missed it.)  So this was an especially good experience for her.

And then a long lazy Sunday was just what we needed to recover from the busy weekend.  We even made it on time for church.  My brother and his family came over for dinner, all of the kids were so good and cute during dinner and played so well after.  With 10 kids under age 8 it gets chaotic pretty quick but we had a great evening.