Giving Pie

Thanks to my sister, Melissa's, mother-in-law we have a Thanksgiving tradition everyone can get behind - pie for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning.  It's perfect.  PERFECT.  Who wants to make breakfast on Thanksgiving morning?  And it's always so sad to be too full to enjoy pie after the big turkey dinner. 

Brian at breakfast.  Not all the pies are pictured here.

We spent Thanksgiving with Grandma Peggy and Grandpa Bob (or as Emil calls him "BOB").  We got there the night before and Grandma and I made more pies.  The counter was already full of them, yet she had more un-baked pie shells ready to fill.  I asked Grandma how she decided how many and what pies to bake, did she go with one per person?  "AHAHAHAHAHAHA!  No."  I didn't do any official math or anything, but we had eight adults, one puny 6 year-old, and three 1 year-olds, and we had 15 pies.  NOW who is hilarious?

My boys turn into crazies at both their grandparents' homes.  Suddenly Colin will only eat treats (the same boy who will choose broccoli every time at home) and Emil turns into a Special Ops Destruction Team.  Bridget was her usual lovely self, helping Grandma create the boys' undoing - turkey place card holders made of cookies and chocolate and candy corn. 

Rob, Claire, and Ian joined us late in the morning on Thursday, then Grandpa Curtis came, he thought, an hour before dinner.  Come on - when has Thanksgiving dinner ever happened on time?

These apples were a favorite find for the little boys.  Anything that can be stacked and then violently knocked over is their idea of a good time.

We ate downstairs, the ping-pong table as the buffet.  Grandpa Bob went to carve the turkey and got schooled by his own "old man," Grandpa Curtis.

In this photo, Grandpa Curtis and Grandpa Bob are deciding whether they could beat me in an arm wrestle.  Colin and Emil are planning my demise.  The food was so delicious and the table was beautiful - the perfect setting to engage all my senses.  Then my baby boys flipped out and would only eat the turkey place card holders and get chocolate EVERYWHERE.  I enjoyed the bites I got, but I had to change into my uniform (sweats and old T-shirt) to give those two a bath before they got chocolate everywhere.  The good news is they eventually went to bed and I had more pie and watched TV.  All better.

The day after Thanksgiving we went to the LDS Institute and let the kids run free in the gym for a while.

The babies figured out a new way to play pool while Grandpa, Rob, Aaron, and Brian played ping-pong.

Then it was time to clean up and head home.  After lunch and building a to-go box, of course.  We took home a lot of pie.  Ahahahahahahaha!