Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was a nice day.  I think I made it a little more stressful than it needed to be, but we remained calm through it all :).  Nate had to work during the day, and the night before, so he wasn't there to help with the millions of rolls I had to make.  And it would have gone more smoothly if I'd left the bread maker out of it (as I found out the morning of).  I messed up a couple dozen rolls, but the rest were decent.  I think I ended up with about 8 dozen.  Kinda crazy.  That's the most I've ever made at one time.  It's flattering though, to know that Nate's Mom likes them, requests them, and openly compliments me (probably too much :) ) when I make them.  Makes staying up til 3:00 am all worth it.

So the morning was (as you can guess) hectic, with me making rolls and no Nate to supervise.  The kids were kinda nuts.  We managed to get ready though, and out of the house with 8 dozen rolls, and a pie by 12:30.  We had plans to go down to Heidi's to hang out for a little, maybe go out for a bite to eat.  

The drive down was nice and pleasant, but when we got there, the hungry little people were a lot harder to deal with when we realized there were no fast food (or even NOT fast food) places open because of the lovely eating holiday.  That was a bummer.  We broke out a bag of the rolls, and snacked on those a little while we played Bananagrams with Heidi.  That was fun.  Until Erika freaked out all over the place.  She was clearly tired and hungry.  The rest of the kids were in and out, on the playground, opening and shutting Heidi's door.... whatever else they could think of, and we left in a tizzy to go up to Nate's parents'.  I hate when we're like that around Heidi because we don't get to see her enough for her to feel like they're not always like that.  Oh well.

So we got to Nate's parents' house at about 4:00, just before Nate got there (thanks to my Mom we were able to drive separately and make the visit to Heidi's).  The dinner was lovely, didn't feel as cramped as I remember it feeling in the past, in the old house.  But either way, it's always nice to be with everyone.  

My favorite part about Thanksgiving is sitting around afterwards.  And I took full advantage of it this year. 

I loved watching everyone.  I'm a people watcher.  The kids all played games, played outside, Nate made the rounds and talked with everyone.  It was a good time.  I loved the hour or so where Nate was holding our niece Maryn's new little baby boy.  He looks so good with a baby in his arms!  And even better with two :).  Erika just had to get closer to the baby.  Yes, she still LOVES babies.  It's quite the obsession actually.  But I love it.  

We got lots of pictures.  And thanks to my goofing around with Manual, some of them didn't turn out so well...

I love this one.  Nate's parents with their youngest Great-Grandson.  How cool will that be!!  

Luke spent a lot of time playing with Nate's phone.  And Jarom enjoyed it as well :).

Darren spent a lot of time harassing Erika.  I don't think she ever did warm up to him.  But I think he was thoroughly entertained ;).

The tradition is to make Gingerbread houses after Thanksgiving dinner, and Nate and I both usually love this part, but for some reason we just weren't feeling it this year.... I'm not sure why?  But we sucked it up and tried to make it fun.  It was difficult because we didn't have any frosting (I distinctly remember that being provided in years past :)... it's all good though) so Nate mixed the frosting in his Mom's fridge with some cream of tartar, and we called that good.  It was a sorry excuse for Gingerbread frosting.  It was virtually useless.

We trudged on though, doing our best with what we had.  It was somewhat frustrating and the entire time, I had the thought, "We're totally going to have to have another Gingerbread house making session before the season is over" in the back of my head, so that helped.

Brad's fell over quite a bit... he had to keep readjusting and compromising the structure... but he was a trooper.

Kelly got the good idea to make them shorter so that they would be more structurally sound.... and that worked for her....

But not for Charity for some reason...

Noah's fell a couple of times as well, but he managed to enjoy putting the candy on it anyway :)

Erika and Jaycee had a few cute run-ins.  They're starting to notice each other more and not just to give back a toy or a baby anymore.  It's kind of cute.

Luke's was amazingly really well-done and stayed put the entire night and all the way home.  It was the impressive little pieces from the Gingerbread making kit maybe.... he had fun!

This was Erika's.  I think she enjoyed it a lot until she realized she could just sit and eat the candy and lick frosting.  But her's stayed up pretty good too.... again with the kit stuff....

This thing was AMAZING!!  The boys did a good job at making it structural.

Here's the closeup of Noah's.  I just loved that he wanted those little "windows" on there.  And that they stayed :).  What a cutie.

I think in the past I've done an "I'm Grateful For..." post, but for some reason I'm just not feeling it this year. Not not feeling grateful, but not feeling like posting it all.  It's okay to just be thankful in my head right???

Anyway.

Thanksgiving was nice.  And now it's time for Christmas :)