Another Thanksgiving in the Books!

I feel like I've been a little off my game with blogging lately and I'm here today to try to get caught up a bit by {finally} blogging about Thanksgiving.   What about the trip we took back in September, you ask?  Well, blogging about that, my friends, is going to have to wait for another day.  Maybe another year.  My bandwidth is not quite there for diving into trip photos yet.   

So, I'll start off the rundown on Thanksgiving with our Christmas decorations.      I've been feeling a lot more minimalistic this year and we didn't even put half of the ornaments on the tree this year.  I originally thought we might get a narrow tree for the dining room to display some of the other ornaments, but ultimately we left it more sparse.   Maybe we'll find a tree on clearance at the end of the season.    

I also tried to go a little lighter on decorating the display shelves.    It's probably still too much and it's definitely way too much brown on brown, but until I finally get around to painting these shelves, it is what it is.  It usually takes 5+ years of an item being on my home improvement to-do list before I even think about making it actually happen. Someday...perhaps!     

IN Virginia, we almost always hosted Thanksgiving at our house, but we haven't done it much since moving here to Utah, since my Mom was already filling that role when we arrived.  {Click here to see a glimpse of  past Thanksgivings}. It's been nice to just show up as a guest the past few years.   This year, however, my Mom and sister needed a break and we became the host house!   With all the hosting we've done with the YSAs the last few months, it didn't feel as stressful as it might have otherwise.   We had 2 of our 5 kids there {Spence and Adam}, my Mom, my sister, two aunts, one uncle, three cousins, the mother-in-law of my cousin, and four kids of my cousin.   We assumed we'd have some of our YSA ward members join the crew, but everyone we talked to already had plans, and the 1st counselor beat us to the punch with the two that didn't.    That was right about 20 people...just enough to keep things lively, but without it being that stressful.   

Glen  smoked the turkey, made mashed potatoes, and gravy.  Adam and I made the pies, which turned out dog ugly, but tasted pretty good anyway!    I need to keep working on my gluten free pie crusts!   

The rest of the Thanksgiving dinner was made by everyone else, which is an awesome way to do things. We played one round of Codenames and then I gave everyone a postcard challenge.   Everyone picked a random word and I went through my postcard stash after they left and sent them a postcard with that word on it.  No one stumped me, though a few people got close (all with food words).   

 In the end I actually found postcards with a pretzel....

pasta...

 and another with a taco on it...  

The words they gave me (besides taco, pasta, and pretzel) were iridescent, watermelon, tiger, purple, lake, candy, beach, pig, octopus, and heat.  And none of the rest of them were that hard.  

 Haha!   Yes, I'm aware that I'm quite a nerd when it comes to postcards.    Feel free to leave a comment and challenge me with your own word.  😆

Now, back to more Thanksgiving shenanigans. 

The boys also played a lot of Magic the Gathering...

And I was quite enraptured with the pics from Thanksgiving out East!   I really missed having any of our girls home and I am somewhat obsessed with Oliver and Lucie right now.  I really really need to see them again soon.   Isn't that flannel on Oliver the cutest?!   

 Adam gave a talk the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so I skipped out on part of 2nd hour and went to watch.   He spoke about becoming new creatures through Christ and did a great job! 

Last but not least, we did a peppermint ice cream taste test over Thanksgiving week.   

Last year, we did Tillamook vs. Umpqua and declared Umpqua the winner.   

This year we put BYU Creamery and Farr's peppermint up against Umpqua....

And Umpqua won the day again!  

 It's got a great creamy texture and by far the best peppermint flavor.    We'll look for more brands to test next year and see if any can unseat Umpqua!   

 

All in all, it was a great long weekend with my boys and it was nice not to have much on our schedule.  I've got a lot to be thankful for and you, my dear blog readers, are on that list!  Thanks for tuning in and have a beautiful holiday season filled with  peace and lots of love.  

Thanksgiving 2012

I oddly don't remember much at all about last Thanksgiving.   I recalled that it had been at our house and that some family came, but beyond that I couldn't think of a single detail about it without looking at the blogpost I'd written about it.   After being grateful that at least it was recorded somewhere and smiling at how much a couple of my kids have grown (Emma in particular), I wondered how much of the last year I would remember without the blog.  I'm beginning to realize that my brain tends to block out stressful memories.  While last Thanksgiving wasn't necessarily stressful itself, it was at the beginning stage of worrying about Spencer and apparently got clumped into the brain block. 

Knowing that that's how my brain works makes me all the more grateful for this blog and also makes me not want to get too far behind on posting, so that the memories are not forgotten.

******************************

  Thanksgiving weekend was the last of three dates we had listed on Spence's Make-a-Wish form as potential dates for his trip, so we held off planning anything until the very last minute just in case they surprised us at the last second.  Finally when we still hadn't heard anything a week-and-a-half beforehand, we decided that we should probably start to think about our holiday plans.  Luckily we didn't have to think too hard because right when we began to assume that we were staying put for Thanksgiving was right when my brother Pete invited us to join their family for Thanksgiving at their house. 

I should probably lie and say how disappointed I was not to host again this year, but I have to admit that I was pretty darn excited that I could make my pies and rolls and not worry about the other details of dinner.  We also may or may not have been excited to not have to stress about cleaning up beforehand.  :)

This year we brought the sweet potato rolls (me), 4 pies (apple (me), lemon meringue (me), pistachio (Cami), and Nutella cream(Emma)), and a broccoli salad (Glen).    Mika did a much better job on the turkey and ham than I ever did, somehow making them both moist and flavorful--something that has always eluded me.  I don't know who made what, but there was also stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans, eggplant, and mashed potatoes....all of which was delicious too!

The 12-and-under cousins feasting at the kids' table...

The adults' turn at the table...

Cami and  Emma fought (literally) the whole time over who got to hold baby Jack Spencer....

 Ellie was more distracted playing with her cousins, but eventually had to get in on the baby action too...

Later on, the tryptophan kicked in for the young...

and the not so young...

Cami is pleased to announce that she's officially made it in life now that cousin Davin refers to her as his friend....

I believe there was also a bit of football watching that went on with the bros, but can't be sure since us ladies were too busy ignoring the kids and talking about grown-up girly things (like how loud and often our husbands snore and other such scandalous topics) . 

Later on we went home and left our Ellie behind for a cousin sleepover. 

The festivities continued the next day when Pete dropped a tired but happy Ellie back off to our house.   The girls played "Extremely Cute Pilgrims" with each other for hours....

meanwhile Davin played lacrosse with Emma...

and Bridgette won the "how-can-I-possibly-be-any-cuter?" contest when she posed with subtle head tilts and huge smiles whenever I came near her with the camera!  

Now I've got Thanksgiving all blogged, stay tuned for the Christmas posts to begin ...

Bosom of My Family

"...the happiest moments of my life have been the few which I 

                  have {spent} at home in the bosom of my family."

Thomas Jefferson  penned these words in a letter to a friend over two hundred years ago, but they still ring true to me today.   With Spence at college and the kids growing older,  it seems like the days of our family all being together are fleeting and  much fewer and further between than I would prefer.  That's why I cling to days like today, when our entire family is together.  I feel an overarching sense of warmth and peace when we are all together under the same roof again.  

Our Thanksgiving this year was quiet…in a good way.  We spent the morning listening to Christmas music on Pandora, while we all cooked and cleaned and prepared for our Thanksgiving feast.  Every person made their own contribution to the meal and it seriously warmed my heart  this afternoon to look up and see almost my entire family working together in the kitchen.  

Glen made and carved our bacon-wrapped turkey and then made delicious gravy out of the drippings! It was our favorite turkey recipe yet and I have a feeling that this will be making a repeat on our Thanksgiving menus in the future! 

Emma made the fresh cranberry sauce that ended up the perfect balance of tart and sweet.

Cami made the stuffing from scratch, including using homemade bread. Then her and Adam also worked together and made the lemon meringue pie.   Cami may be a cupcake baker extraordinaire, but it was cute to see how darn proud she was of that pie! 

Emma made the mashed potatoes, chocolate pie, and cranberry sauce.   AnnaLisa brought the sweet potato rolls, peanut butter pie, and roasted brussel sprouts.   Cami made the stuffing and lemon meringue pie. Adam helped peel the potatoes and was general kitchen assistant.  Glen made the turkey and gravy.   Ellie made the pumpkin pie.  And I made the apple pie (and cleaned….a lot).    Spence was the only one who didn't do any cooking, but lucky for us he brought his charm and appetite to the table.   

I felt kind of dumb when I glanced at Glen's Facebook page this afternoon and saw all the fancy place settings, complete with nametags and napkin rings, that most people do for Thanksgiving, but what can I say?   We are about as UNfancy people as you get and the fact that we actually used {mostly} matching table settings instead of paper plates was a huge step up from normal for us.
…and I should probably stop peeking at Glen's FB!  

We celebrated an early Thanksgiving (blogpost is coming) this past weekend with my local siblings and their families, so AnnaLisa and her roommate, Sandi, were our only two guests this year.   They were delightful company and with all the delicious made-with-love food, it really was the kind of day that memories are made of.  My heart is overflowing and I wish you the same sense of contentment and peace that we felt today.  

Happy Thanksgiving!     

The Bad, The Good, The Funny, and the Tender Mercies

I'm slowly making my way through writing up about our amazing trip, but it's slow going and I didn't want to forget any of the details of our Thanksgiving Week, so I thought I'd do a little recap here before diving into our travel posts.  

THE BAD:

1. Our car totally went kaput driving 70mph down the freeway while driving my brother, Matt, to the airport.  I was barely able to maneuver off the freeway to a parking lot, where my brother had to Uber the rest of the way and I had to call someone to rescue me.  (see below for more details)

2.  I got a full-blown stomach bug on Thanksgiving Day and spent the entire day in bed with zero appetite and feeling miserable.

3.  They fixed our car for a somewhat reasonable amount, told us it was ready to pick up, then called us back a while later, and said, "never mind, it's still being weird."   We still haven't heard the new verdict.

THE GOOD: 

1.  My sister, Kristina, and her family (husband and 5 kids), plus my brothers, Nate and Matt,  came to visit.  They came to town for the BYU-OU football game (a game my Dad would have LOVED) and Kristina and Nate stayed for Thanksgiving.  

2.  Ellie and Emma came home from Rexburg and Provo, and Cami and Lucie flew in from Alabama for Thanksgiving, so  we had everyone home but Adam (still on his mission) and Garrett (who was working crazy shifts at the hospital and couldn't get off). 

3.  We had a lot of fun baking and just hanging out together.   We also visited the Orem Temple open house, went to Luminaria at Thanksgiving Point, and got several inches of snow. 

4.  My nephews, Manuel and Isaiah, got baptized while they were here.   They are a year apart in age, but the older one was pretty nervous and wanted to wait for his brother to do it at the same time.    

5. No one else (except Lucie and me) got the stomach bug and thankfully it was only a one-day thing. 

6.  Lucie stayed behind when Cami flew home and I get a bonus week of Gigi time!  

THE FUNNY: 

My nephews' baptism was definitely the most entertaining and memorable baptism I'd ever been to in my entire life.  They were both a bit nervous about getting baptized and that nervousness translated into extreme silliness.  There was potty humor, there was giggling, they screamed as they went underwater, one of them screamed, "I'm blind, I'm blind," as he came up out of the water, and the other kicked his dad in his sensitive parts because he'd been instructed by an older sibling that he may as well, because he'd be forgiven for it anyway.   It was definitely irreverent, but knowing their background of trauma (they were adopted out of the foster care system a few years ago), it was honestly beautiful to see them overcome their fears and embrace it in the best way they knew how.  

THE TENDER MERCIES: 

As inconvenient as it was for the car to break down during a busy holiday week when I had a million places to be, there were so many tender mercies and little miracles that happened with it, that I need to capture them here, so I don't forget. 

Tender Mercy #1. It was me driving it in a populated area, not Glen in the middle of nowhere on his way to Saint George.  He drives that car to Saint George 95% of the time and I only requested it because of Lucie coming to town.  

Tender Mercy #2. I had 3 separate trips to make to SLC that day and the car broke down on the trip when there would be  the fewest people on the road (at 5:30am).  

Tender Mercy #3. It all went down (power steering stopped working and car started losing power) right at an exit, so I was able to maneuver off the freeway quickly and safely. 

Tender Mercy #4.  Our AAA membership is all up to date, so they were able to come tow the car to our mechanic with little stress. 

Tender Mercy #5.  This car literally has 230,000 miles on it and has had very few problems, so honestly it's a tender mercy it's lasted as long as it has.  We clearly need a new car soon, but we  are hoping to get it running again and working well enough to hand off to Adam when he gets back from his mission. 

Dear Friends,

To my very loyal, tolerant blog friends,

It has come to my attention that I have let you down these past few days.  Instead of humorous essays filled with wry observations about our modern Thanksgiving holiday and great photos of my botched cooking adventures, you got a big fat nothing instead. 

I have lots of good excuses, like the fact that my Sears fridge was broken AGAIN (it's a conspiracy I say, a  left-winged evil conspiracy) and I haven't had more than 5 hours of sleep in weeks, but then that's just kind of boring stuff I always complain about, so instead I'll tell you that it was due to the fact that I've had major writing block and have been far too busy making embroidered name placards for all of our Thanksgiving guests (to go along with the personalized cardigans I hand knitted for everyone) that there wasn't a spare moment to sit down at the computer.

 So now you know why I have let you down, I'm going to let you down again.

  Although it could be argued that it is always the case, today, in particular, I have absolutely nothing witty or observant to say

Our Thanksgiving was, on the whole, pretty average.  I know you're not supposed to say that, but it's true.  We had absolutely no family squabbles over whose turn to pray it was nor any yelling matches about whose pie was better.  Not a single person insulted my cooking skills when I overcooked the roasted vegetables, oversalted the croutons, and in a moment of true desperation resorted to Stove Top stuffing instead of homemade.  Instead our friends and family were all nice and gracious and totally helpful. 

They all put up with  an averagely good dinner (my fault, not theirs) on Chinet plates.  We all overate an abnormally average amount and sat around and engaged in obtusely average conversations about cute kids, the weather, food, BYU sports, and Bangladeshi politics.

And then as per our tradition we discussed with the kids some of the things that we're grateful for...

(actual responses) family, Legos, friends, food, scriptures, Jesus, church, trees, losing teeth, grass, temple, books, Facebook, toys, tv, sports, and "stuff as awesome as me" (can you guess which child wrote that?) 

So there you have it.  I'm sorry I've let you down the last few days and I'm even sorrier that I burdened you with my late night attempt at saving the day.

Hope you had a wonderfully average Thanksgiving too!
Love,
L

*******************************************************

Thanksgiving 2021 by the NUMB3RS

THANKSGIVING 2021 BY THE NUMB3RS

It's been a long time since I remembered a special event by the NUMB3RS and Thanksgiving seemed like the perfect opportunity to do it again! 

39-  How many guests we were originally planning for

7- people who ended up canceling their flights

11-  How many guests we actually had 
(me, Glen, Ellie, Adam, Spencer, Hyrum (Adam's friend from VA), mom, dad, AnnaLisa, Heather, Tim)

1-  False positive rapid covid test last week that officially scared off most of the expected guests 

6- subsequent negative PCR tests (between the 3 of us) to reassure the rest of the guests (including Spence and Adam) that it was okay to spend time with us

5-  pies total
(apple and blueberry made by me, peanut butter made by Ellie, chocolate fudge made by AnnaLisa, and pecan made by Marie Callender) 

I definitely have not perfected my gluten free pie crusts yet!   They were still delicious, but decidedly much less pretty than my gluten-filled ones of past years.

3-ish hours that Glen smoked the turkey for.  It was delicious! 

He spatch-cocked the turkey this year and was very happy with the results

12- other yummy items on the menu

(gluten free rolls made by me, cranberry tip top "salad" and spinach salad made by Adam, green beans made by Ellie, smoked turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy made by Glen, ham and sweet potato casserole made by my mom, glutenous crescent rolls  made by AnnaLisa, and broccoli salad made by Nana)

My gluten free rolls turned out well enough that I was not the only one eating them, which is not a small feat considering there were also homemade gluten-filled crescent rolls available!  😆

2-phone calls with our missionary!  She got well-fed today and was excited to tell us about a baptism on Saturday.  

4 -boys excited to have someone else to play Magic with (Spence had already left when I took this picture)

3 - full loads of dishes + a bunch that were washed by hand!  Glen, bless his heart, did most of them.

1- very full mama who is ready for bed! 
We missed Emma and Cami being here, but overall it was a great day!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
Thanks for caring enough to read my blog!