Thanksgiving review

A month behind on blog posts.  Seems legit.  Mostly, I was shamed into posting after I help Liam post on his blog. So, here we are on Christmas Eve eve, ready to look at pictures from Thanksgiving.

I am so glad I was able to trade my holiday so we could go back to Illinois to see the Shaffer side of the family.  Even the car ride there and back went pretty smoothly.  We drove straight through on Wednesday and got to Chris and Kim's as the snow was starting to really cover the roads.  We didn't have to go anywhere while we were there.  When we left Friday morning, it was cold, but the roads were clear.  The children were content for most of the time and the dog even behaved.

And, it was so nice just to be together and enjoy everyone's company.  I think that is what I am most thankful for:  time to sit and visit and just be.  

I took some pictures.  Let's see if they can tell our story...

Liam might have been a little worn out after the drive to Illinois.

Kella discovered the cousins' stash of barbies.

We played lots of games!  Board games.

Card games.

Did I get any pictures of the actual Thanksgiving dinner?  Apparently not.  I guess I was too busy eating.

I got an awesome picture of the brothers. 

And, a picture of some Illinois wearing guys.

Liam, Savannah and Marie.

The "C" cousins: Cale and Cassie.

Loved the trip.  The highlight of our Thanksgiving break.

Thanksgiving

Some scenes from Thanksgiving...

The traditional Indian that all the kindergartners do.  Done this year by Ewan.

We played some games.

Kella met Uncle Jeff and Aunt Lindsay.

We had some awesome dance moves going on.

Got an updated picture of the brothers.

Andy was so good.  I had lots of intentions of helping with the Thanksgiving meal prep, but was so tired from working the night before.  The only thing I did was finish prepping the rolls so Andy could bake them later.  Some of the sides were already prepared and he had done some of the cooking the night before.  And, we deep-fried the turkey, so that made things easier.  Hopefully, the morning went smoothly for Andy.  I woke up in time to eat and enjoy our company. 

having some more thanksgiving

Last Friday, Grammy Pammy came to visit. We had another Thanksgiving dinner for her and invited some friends over, too.  (We needed the extra help eating the turkey)  The menu was varied a little bit:  mashed sweet potatoes and green bean casserole for our sides at this meal.  No pictures of this meal-I didn't want to creap out the friends.  Grammy also brought us all cool presents from her recent trip to Ireland.  The boys all got sweatbands of a local soccer (football) team from Kilkenny. 

Kella got a little wool sheep.  I got and awesome wool sweater.  But, Andy got the best present:  all the shampoos, teas and coffees from the hotels Mom stayed at.  What a gift!

Of course, we had to torture Grammy by having her play a board game with the boys.  I'm sure she's having flashbacks to how "fun" it was to play with me and my sibs when we were little. :-)

The kids loved getting the chance to see their Grammy Pammy, too, this weekend.  I did too!

with Kella

having some Thanskgiving

My favorite thing about Thanksgiving is the chance to plan a big meal. I don't like turkey, or ham or pumpkin pie. I pretty much gorge myself on sides.  This year we had 2 meals.  The first meal was on Thanksgiving. Grammy Linda, Grandpa Jerry, Chris, Kim and the girls all came over.  What can I say?  We are a cool family to visit.  Andy deep fried the turkey, Linda brought some noodles (and the turkey), Kim brought the pies and we had mashed potatoes, stuffing, glazed carrots, broccoli, rolls, a spinach cranberry salad and a cranberry jello dessert.  There was plenty of food and plenty of leftovers to make another meal.  But the best part was that we all got to visit and the cousins got to play together.  It stunk that I had to leave the fun for work that evening, but everyone hung around until Friday so I got to see them then, too.

the cousins' table-our picnic table from outside

the grown-up table-I busted out our nice china and some of our crystal for the meal

turkey induced sleepy

Grammy and Kella

It's getting harder to fit the cousins on the couch.  The girls all wanted to hold Kella.

with Aunt Kim

I love to get photos of the "C" cousins-Cassie and Cale-together.  They are only 6 months apart.

Liam has a new fun game-blast off!.  This chair is a rocket ship into space.

It was crazy and loud, but so much fun!  I'm thankful that we were able to get together.