Thanksgiving

We were blessed that Auntie Dot and the cousins could come for Thanksgiving!  Unfortunately, Uncle Don was sick, and so was Papa Richard, so Grandma Kathy changed her travel plans and came along to help with cousins.  It was very special to have her visiting on a holiday!  The cousins arrived while we were at Thanksgiving Eve church service (my favorite church service of the year).  After eating pie at church, we hurried home and reveled in the mayhem.  There is nothing — I repeat, nothing– like the mayhem when you take three small children out of the car after being strapped in a seat for more than six hours.  I know this mayhem well.  Cousins were running, jumping, playing drums, screeching, spinning.  It was crazy!  And we were so glad to have them.

Since Dr. Peds was working on Thanksgiving, we had our feast in the evening and spent the day cooking;  raspberry rice pudding, squash, cranberries, stuffing, mashed potatoes, a mysterious turkey (which was a little overcooked because we guessed about its weight, but still delicious).  Dot had stayed up into the wee hours of the night upon arriving at our house to bake multiple delicious pies, and in honor of Grandma McGinty, who always served pie for breakfast on special occasions, we ate pie first thing Thanksgiving morning!  It was wonderful!  We all loved it. What a great way to start Thanksgiving:  dessert first.

After lunch, all the littles needed to go down for a rest.  All the big kids and Grandma Kathy did some quality silent reading.

Soon this love bug was up and toddling about.  He’s a great walker these days.  And he still has plenty of squish about him!  He’s a little more leary of unfamiliar people (like overbearing aunts who splurt out lots of love), and sleeping is not his favorite hobby right now.  He makes up for all of this with lots of squeezy hugs, though.  You just have to ask.  And he still likes to be sung to.  

He also has a great smirk.

Intermittently throughout the day we read slips of paper from the Russell cousins’ thankful jar and hung them on our thankful tree.  It was a fun way to join the tree and the jar together and remember what we were thankful for over the past weeks.

Thanksgiving feast preparations were well underway when we started contemplating gravy.  I didn’t have a plan for gravy.  I don’t eat gravy and I always forget about it.  Grandma Kathy had been looking forward to mashed potatoes and gravy all day, and she did have a plan for it, a plan that involved boiling the turkey neck to make broth.  Unfortunately, however, I had discarded the turkey neck when the turkey went in the roaster.  To save the day for gravy lovers in the family, Grandma Kathy quickly dug right through the garbage and grabbed the neck and stuck it in a pot of water.  We were all laughing hysterically. Word has it that the gravy was delicious.

Those turkey handprints are a project from Mr. TOF’s preschool.

After stuffing ourselves with food, we took a break to clean up the kitchen. I confess that in my haste to clean away the chaos of pots and pans I accidentally threw the turkey drippings grandma had been saving.  It was pretty crazy in there . . . people and pots, and by that time I was not thinking clearly.  To entertain the kidlets, a Skype to the Iowa cousins was in order.  (Previously they had Facetimed Auntie Amy Texas, and I had called my parents in the late morning to wish them Happy Thanksgiving).   

There’s nothing like the mayhem of seven kids skyping with three cousins in Iowa.

While they were busy talking/jumping/making faces at their cousins, Auntie Dot cut more pie!  Yum.  

Before sending the little people off to bed, everyone got to eat pie, and we went around the table telling what we were thankful for about each person at the table.  It’s a wonderful new tradition.