Thanksgiving---Part 1

This year, we were able to host the Thanksgiving feast for many of our family members. My Uncle Mike and Aunt Genny (and their daughters Erin and Lauren), Erin's friends named Randi and Evan, my Uncle Steve, Aunt Sandy and son Jonathan, my Aunt Debby, Uncle Mark, daughter Abby and son Luke, my Mom and Dad, my Grandma Margaret all came to celebrate with us this year (22 in all including us!) David was the chef for the day and I was the hostess.

We put in the leaves in our table and then put another table at the end to extend it so that we could all eat together and that worked out nicely! Everyone brought something to share and we had ham, turkey, green bean casserole (two kinds, gluten-free and regular), stuffing, gravy, homemade cranberry sauce, rolls, and of course pies for dessert! Aunt Genny and her girls made pumpkin, pumpkin and pecan and I think another pecan pie as well. We also had homemade whipped cream and ice cream to boot! The kids ate at the little kiddy picnic table that we normally keep outside and Naomi ate in her high chair and miraculously we all had hot food!! Yeah for David!

I was in charge of the mashed potatoes and of course ended up getting distracted with all the people here and didn't check on them often enough. The result of this was that most of the potatoes cooked into the water and I thought I may have to throw them all out. I drained them in the sink and was able to salvage them, but soon after that the sink backed up. I had heard that it was a "no-no" to put potato peels in the garbage disposal, and had done it before with no problems, but this time there was a BIG problem! We tried Draino to no avail and I ended up having to haul dirty dishes/cookware down to the utility sink downstairs in order to keep the kitchen clean enough to work in. So as we ate the "lovely" smell of Draino wafted through the yummy dinner smells. Yuck!

After dinner, my uncles Mike and Mark set to work to help unstop the drain. Mark looked on and gave some good tips and Mike got down there and with various make-shift tools that I had on hand was able to unclog the drain. He had to dump water from buckets off the balcony, since it wouldn't drain properly and later discovered he lost his wedding ring! We weren't sure where it might be and a day later I found it lying on the ground in the back yard! I was SOOOO glad that my Uncle knew how to fix our sink and SOOOO glad he didn't permanently lose his ring in the process! It happened to be my Uncle Mark's b-day on Thanksgiving also, so we sang him a very hearty "Happy Birthday" as he ate his pie after dinner. (The picture above is of Grandma, Great Grandma and the kids the following day, but I wanted to throw it in here too.)

My Uncle Mike and David are always getting into it about the teams they root for. David likes the Yankees and Mike likes the Mariners, David likes the Cowboys and Mike likes the Seahawks, you get the idea! Anyway, since the Cowboys were playing on Thanksgiving, David thought it would be funny to get Naomi a little Dallas Cowboy's cheerleader outfit. As you can see, she was a rather reluctant cheerleader. We could tell she liked the outfit, but was a bit shy to shake the pom poms for us!

Then we had her pose with him, but as you can see she isn't too fond of people she doesn't know as well! Of course, my Uncle Mike and Aunt Genny said, "She is really crying because she wants to be a Seahawk's cheerleader!"

Overall, we had a great time visiting with everyone and spending time together. My Aunts and my Mom went to visit Grandma Betty in the nursing home in the afternoon and the uncles, my Dad and our family stayed at the house and watched the Cowboys game. We were glad to host and it seemed everyone had a good time. Thanks all for coming!