Thanksgiving Week

For Thanksgiving, we loaded up the van and headed to my parents. But it wasn't just for the one day. No, no. When we do things, we do them big! My parents were coming through town the weekend before Thanksgiving, so we asked if they would mind taking the boys with them. They agreed, and Saturday we kissed the boys "see ya later" as they rode off in my parents new van. This new van, luckily, has a dvd player, so the boys got in some Wiggle time. With an afternoon/evening free, Biju and I tried to use our time wisely. We grabbed lunch at BK, hit WalMart, came back to unload everything and check on movie times, then headed for dinner. We tried Ted's Montana Grill where we each had our first buffalo burger. Then it was on to the "cheap" movie place ($2.50 per ticket) where we saw The Invention of Lying. It was cute, but we were a little surprised to see so many young people in the theatre. It is NOT a movie I would take anyone under 13 to (or maybe even under 21, but thats me being a prude). Nothing horrible, just topics that need to be handled maturely.

Early Sunday, we headed up to the farm. I got to kiss the boys hello then kiss them "see you later" as I quickly left again with my mom, sister-in-law and niece. We drove the half hour to my aunt's house so I could present a Norwex party. I always love doing Norwex parties!

The rest of the week went smoothly. The boys were meant to live on a farm, I swear. We hardly saw Ajay as he was always outside playing. He didn't care too much if he was by himself or with the cousins. He did help Papa (I think everyday) with chores. I've mentioned before how my heart stops every time he gets on the tractor, but he just loves it and I know my dad is always extra cautious when he has little riders along. The chickens decided to stop laying, so he was unable to bring any eggs in.

On Wednesday, we suckered my sister-in-law, Brandi, into watching Ajay and Alex while Biju and I went to play "adult games" - which is what we call the games at the casino. Thank you, Brandi!! We got back Wed. evening and I made up some ground turkey curry. I think Dad liked it - he had 3 bowls of it!

Thursday morning we hit the oven running. The kitchen was full of the women folk getting things ready. The rest of the family started arriving around 3 and we got the main food table set up, with a dessert table not far away. We all stuffed ourselves silly, as is tradition. My aunt brought a new game for us all to try out. Its called Wits and Wagers and boy did we have fun! Biju and I ended up winning 3 of the 4 games (and in that 4th game, we lost miserably). While the big kids and adults were playing W&W, the littler ones (Alex, 21mo, Logan, 15mo, Ajay, 4, Thomas, 7) found Mom's basket of "Tupperware" (you know, those old plastic cottage cheese and sour cream bowls that you use as Tupperware?) and kept themselves busy by rolling (or throwing) them around the floor to each other.

Soon it was time for me to get my guys ready for bed. Biju played "7 1/2" with the others (a favorite game at our gatherings) while I slipped the boys into their jammies. Alex went down easily, but Ajay wanted to play with his cousins a bit longer.

Friday morning we got everything packed up and headed back home. It's always nice to visit the family and it's always nice coming back home and sleeping in your own bed. Gracie missed us and wanted cuddles once we got home. Nemo didn't look excited to see us, though (can you tell if a fish is excited?).

Here are some snaps that were taken on Thanksgiving (Mom had to e-mail them to me from her camera, as I had forgotten mine).

Here is Alex, clinging to Mommy. He had just awoken from his nap. When he went to sleep, all was normal. He woke up to find Nana and Papa's house filled with people and noise!

Here is the food table. See what I mean about too much food? After we had all eaten, Dad came back through and told us all we needed to come back in and eat some more. Yeah right!!
We had some of the usual suspects - turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, nadava, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce (not pictured), green beans, corn casserole, rolls, sage dressing, sweet potatoes (mashed this year!), etc. - and some new items - some sort of squash casserole (it was sweet, and tastey) and Dad made up a couple of tenderloins on the grill.

Here is the view of the dessert table!! Brownies, German Chocolate Cake, Amish Cinnamon Bread, Sugar Cookies (Brandi and the kids [Alex, Ajay, Brandon, 14, Jenna, 11] made these on Wednesday - if you look closely you can see a couple of "handprint" cut-out cookies!), Cranberry-Lemon cookies, Crustless Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Roll, Pumpkin IceBox Pie (made by me, recipe found in Martha Stewart's Everyday Food Magazine), Cherry Pie, Pumpkin-Cheesecake (a layer of pumpkin, a layer of cheesecake), Blackberry Pie, Pecan Pie.

And here we are getting ready to play Wits and Wagers. There are cards with questions. Each person (or teams of two, like we played) guesses what the answer is and writes it down on a card. The cards are then arranged on a piece of felt that gives ways winners get paid - 2 to 1, 3 to 1, etc. Then each person/team wages on which answer they think is correct. Really so much fun!

All in all, we were all very thankful for good food and a great time with the family!!