Thanksgiving Day 2010

Ivan, Adelia, Aaron, Krystal, Lincoln, Stephanie, Kirk, Jackson, Kyle, Kelsey, Tanner, Mom, Kerry is taking the picture 

We spent Thanksgiving week with my family up in Hooper. It was a lot of fun to be up there with all those who were there.

My boys are in love with Jackson's dog Wallace. Especially Ivan, he followed Wallace around every where he went, and threw toys for him and petted him. Wallace was really patient with it all weekend long. What a good dog. 

 Everyone had something to contribute this year for Thanksgiving dinner, even Juicy B. Jackson made jalapeno poppers for an appetizer. Kelsey made deviled eggs that looked like turkeys. Steph did a veggie tray. I made cranberry sauce from scratch, rice dressing from Kerry's first wife's recipe, and cream cheese pumpkin pecan pie. Mom made pretty much everything else. And she was nice enough to substitute coconut milk into her fabulous roll recipe so that Ivan could have some. Everything turned out excellent.

In between cooking things and hanging out, we played a few rounds of Perudo. A dice game where you have to guess how many of each dice will end up under everyone's cups. It's a really fun game, although I suck at it. Probably because I'm unwilling to attempt all the mathematical calculations that would help my guesses to be more accurate. What I like about Perudo is that the little kids can "play" too, if you give them an extra cup and some extra dice. Ivan thought he was so big sitting at the table and shaking his dice with everyone else, and it didn't hinder the game any by having him play along.

 Here's Ivan with his game face on.

 Mom and Kerry working hard in the kitchen.

I had to take two shots of Thanksgiving dinner to get everyone in, but here we all are (minus me taking the picture). We had a wonderful dinner. Special thanks to me, who insisted that we use Mom's nice china dishes. She wasn't going to get the out, but I talked her into it. We didn't get to use the crystal goblets though, oh no, those are for Christmas only. ;)

After dinner and before pie, our family put on a little mini presentation for everyone. Since Lincoln had been talking about Thanksgiving so much in preschool this month, I thought it would be fun for him to tell everyone the Thanksgiving story. So we made some more spoon Pilgrims and Indians, so he'd have props, and let him tell the story of the first Thanksgiving. He needed a little bit of help in some parts, but I thought he did a fantastic job. After that, we told everyone about our new tradition of the Grateful Gobbler, and asked if they wouldn't mind if our family shared what we were thankful for. So that was fun too. 

And then we had pie. And it was delicious. 

We did not go black Friday shopping this year. Most of us had colds, and there wasn't really anything out there that we wanted. And I didn't really want to brave it with three kids. Think what you will, but I'm not that adventurous. 

Friday night all the girls (minus Adelia, who is too young) went to the Nutcracker ballet. It was so fun. That's a tradition my mom and I have had forever. The boys got their deer hunting weekend, and we got to go see the ballet. But then life gets busy, and we haven't been since before Aaron and I were married. After the ballet, we went out to Farr's ice cream. It's one of those deals where you put whatever you want in a cup and pay by the weight. I was delighted to have mine all to myself. Usually Aaron and I have to share a cup, and I am not very good at sharing my dessert.