[Jaime made this for our Thanksgiving meal centerpiece]
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (November 23-25) were easy nothing days! Just the way I like it (sometimes!!). Sunday was awesome. We had nothing scheduled for after church and so after quiet time we got a bunch of games out and just played. We broke off into groups and played multiple games as the same time and then we’d rotate and play again (it all happened naturally, no set system). At one point I had to sit and nurse Keri and I was watching my little family play with each other, no fighting or arguing. No one getting their feelings hurt. Just laughing and smiling and happiness. I thought then, this is what family is all about. This is where the joy of this life comes from. Moments like these. The tricky part is having more moments like those. That is where our responsibility lies, making our home a fun, safe haven from the world. Making the simple things grand in the lives of our children. Making memories as a family that they can look back on and smile and feel warm and fuzzy all over. That is what family is all about. That is why we are here on this earth. Joy. Real joy. Joy found in being a family.
Tuesday was a grand day because I got to sleep in! Scott saw how wiped I was on Tuesday morning and offered to let me sleep. He’d just go into work once I woke up and just work late instead. Usually I’m up by 6:30am. At 9:30am Scott had to come into the room to find Keri an outfit to wear. When I realized how late it was I felt awful. Scott offered to let me sleep more, but I knew I needed to get up and he needed to go to work. It took another hour to get myself going but what a great day we had. We got all our school subjects done (for both girls), all our chores done, a nice dinner and to bed on time. It was a good day. Sleep does wonders for a tired body and mind!
Wednesday November 26 we finally got the rain we’d been promised all week. It was nice to see the rain pouring down. Milo, Niah and Afton loved it too and got all dressed up in their rain gear and went out. They ended up at the neighbors house and she called and asked if they could stay and play for a while. They stayed for 3 hours!! They had so much fun and it was nice to get lots of stuff done with Jaime and Alix’s school. After lots of school and some chores, we went to Jaime’s piano. Since p.e. is over for now, we are going to piano in the afternoon. After we got home we did all our chores and I made some dinner. After dinner Jaime started making pie crusts. By the end of the evening she had made 6 pie crusts. She did it all. I helped shape the outside edge, but she was mentoring me the whole time. She has a great skill for crusts!! I made the filling to put in those crusts. We made 4 pumpkin and 2 apple. Later that night we used graham cracker crusts and made a banana cream and a chocolate pie. It was just the beginning of all the food that would be made and consumed Thanksgiving day! :0)
After getting to bed at midnight, 6am came early, but I knew I had to get up and get things going so we could have it all done for an early dinner. Jaime came down just a few minutes after me and was a HUGE help. Scott and the others came down by 7. We were in full Thanksgiving mode at this point and it was fun. We had a job for everyone.
Jaime made the green been casserole, Alix made the sweet potatoes, everyone helped peel potatoes for the mashed potatoes, everyone helped make the or’derves and everyone helped with the fruit salad.
I did the turkey, stuffing, deviled eggs, 7-layer dip and Jello. Scott made the rolls.
All in all it was a great dinner prepared by great people. We were a little late getting things together so we let the kids munch on appetizers at noon. We had dinner on the table about 1:30pm. It was a wonderful meal. We had invited a few families over but they all had other plans, so it was just the 6 of us (Afton and Keri were napping). It was fun to eat and tell funny stories of times past and enjoy our little family. After eating we did the big clean up, played some games, made some phone calls and then went for a family walk. We got stopped at our neighbors for a few minutes. That’s always fun. Then we continued our walk. It was getting dark fast (mostly due to the black clouds rolling in) but the kids really wanted to go on the swings, so we took them to the park. We played till it was just too dark and then came home.
We got out all the desserts and enjoyed all the yummy things to eat. After another big clean up, we got kids ready for bed and put them down. All in all it was a great day and we loved every minute of it. The kids were super helpful and I can see in the years to come that it really will be a family made meal.
Hey! We couldn’t find anyone to celebrate with either!! Had I known, I would have invited you guys. I figured you’d be going to visit family or spend it with the Dertings (are they still going to Mission Peak ward??) Not to mention the 2 1/2 hour flight and 45 minute drive from the airport ;-)