Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving with Brian's family at his brother, Kyle's, house.  I had three assignments; take a family picture (all 27 of us were there - how crazy!), sweet potato souffle, and pecan pie. The food items I was confident about since I've been bringing them to both my family and Brian's family Thanksgivings for at least the last 10 years. The photo gave me anxiety because I have a point-and-shoot camera, it was sunny and just after noon, and I have no tripod.  Luckily Grandma just wanted to be able to see everyone's faces.

Front row, sitting: Nick, Aiden, Jake, Janessa, Shawn, and Kalvin.  Middle row: Lynzi, Nate, Bridget, Grandpa, Colin, Grandma, Abby, Nicolette, and McKade.  Back row: Kyra, Brighton, Jed, Hal, Debbie, Darrin, Dena, Kyle, Diana, Emil, Brian, and Nicole.

We got down to the business of eating as soon as the photo was done.  Once again, the food was outstanding.  Even though mine wasn't really warm anymore by the time I sat down to eat, it was still in the top five meals I've had all year. :)  The boys had their high chairs, but it was nap time and Colin wasn't having it.  He took a couple of bites of the sweet potato souffle, lifted up his plate toward me and said, "DONE!" That means the crying and complaining were about to commence since I wasn't about to take him out of his chair and let him climb all over us while we tried to eat.  Diana made a secret weapon, though:

Remember last year how we left the cute turkeys by the plates and then Emil and Colin only ate those instead of real food and I had to leave the table before I'd finished to give them a BATH?  I do.  I hid these beauties the moment I saw them.  I pulled them out again when Colin thought he was done with dinner.  I'm ashamed to admit that I let Emil and Colin eat two of these so I could keep eating stuffing and turkey and sweet potatoes and...

Let's change the subject! Aunt Diana had FIVE tables set up. Every one of them was decorated so cute with fun centerpieces and cute candy turkeys. It was beautiful. Bridget and Abby were at the official Kid's Table in the dining room.  

One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving at Kyle and Diana's is the view out their back windows - which is where we took the family photo. They can see most of Utah Lake and probably BYU from there. We've had a very warm November, so it seemed like we could enjoy standing on the deck even more than usual this year.

The thing the boys liked best about Aunt Diana's house was the dog, Pixie.  Can you see that Colin is holding the leash? Pixie tried to evade Colin by running under the table while he was holding her leash. What she didn't know is that Colin is a an Escape Artist. He literally thinks like his opponent to get out of tight spots. Colin dropped the leash and ran to the other side of the table to meet Pixie and pick the leash up again. It was a thing of beauty.

I know you're thinking that we need a dog. We do not. When my memories of picking up poo in the backyard and finding holes all over the grass and trying to find someone to take care of the dogs every time we go anywhere are not fresh anymore...they still will be. But yes, this is very cute.

Uncle Hal played a little football with Kalvin as we were packing up the car. I was the first one to make a To-Go plate. Ha HA! That's where all the food went, everyone. Next time don't make everything so delicious and you can keep your leftovers.

It was a perfect Thanksgiving. The very next day was our 17th wedding anniversary. That's how it fell the day we got married - it was the day after Thanksgiving. We thought about driving to Manti and showing the kids where we got married, but we decided it was too far. Ha! Stupid kids making everyone fly all the way to Utah, then drive all the way to Manti for our wedding. (To be fair, there would be nothing for the kids to do once we got there and we're going on a long road trip soon.) The beautiful thing is that I feel like I'm getting happier every year. Thanks, Brian. And Bridget and Emil and Colin. :)

Photo by Emmanuelle Maxwell on a very cold day in October.