Day of Thanksgiving

We somehow managed to fit 10 adults and 11 children into my parents home for Thanksgiving this year. That included us and our children, my parents, Carissa and her family, Celeste and her family, and a family friend, Tessa, and her family. The adults were technically outnumbered, but we figured out how to control (sort of) the chaos. Mom and Dad set up a tv and dvd player in the playroom, which seemed to keep the kids busy most of the time.

While I wouldn't consider Thanksgiving my most favorite holiday, I do love the spread of food every year. Turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes...and then there's always the leftovers that seem to last for days! We even had a ham and funeral potatoes, green beans, mashed potatoes, and raspberry jello salad, and that's not counting the appetizers of cheese and crackers and a vegetable platter!

While the kids did a great job taking pictures, I couldn't seem to get the adults to take a serious shot.

Even as I try (in vain) to get a good picture of Adam, Celeste is in the background playing around...or maybe that's how she normally eats???

Here's FINALLY a good shot, but if you see below, it didn't last.

Celeste is trying to get in the spirit of Movember...yes, I said Movember. Something about growing out a mustache for prostate cancer awareness? I'm not sure what mustaches have to do with prostate cancer but I think Bryan loved the excuse.

Please don't think this is a serious shot. Carissa is making fun of my tendancy to tilt my head while taking pictures.

My apple pie. I teased mom that I needed a turkey cookie cutter for the pie, but turns out she actually had one!

Of course we took advantage of Black Friday, although I've learned that you can usually get similar prices by shopping online. And I think it was easier to take advantage this year because some stores started their sales on Thursday night. We drove out to Toys R Us, but the line to get in was around the store twice, and they were only allowing 50 people in every 10 minutes. We would have been outside waiting for hours. In the cold. And there was nothing I needed that bad. So we went to Walmart, which was open and not at all crazy, but we got there at 10:30pm and weren't allowed to make any Black Friday purchases until midnight. We got everything we needed and were home by 12:30pm. Not bad for Black Friday! We slept in and even ran to a few stores later that day. How many times can I say most of my Christmas shopping is done before December even starts?!

As usual, Thanksgiving gives us all a chance to really think about what we are blessed with and what we are thankful for. Here are some of mine:

• Family, all of them. My husband, my kids, my parents, my siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents...all of them. Even on the worst day, it is my family that puts a smile on my face.
• Friends. I just love them, probably because they love me.
• The gospel. It has given my life meaning and direction that I couldn't get anywhere else.
• A house, food to eat, clothes - all the necessities of life that we tend to take for granted.
• Good books. I'm reading the Hunger Game series and can't seem to put it down.