Thanksgiving 2019

Thanksgiving Day was lovely!

Everything was prepared on time, our guests enjoyed themselves, and we enjoyed them. It was a great day.

Our college kids arrived around 8:30 or 9:00 Tuesday night. All were forewarned that they would be expected to help clean and bake all day Wednesday. All were agreeable. I am not great at delegating, and I don't have enough mixers, bowls, or pots for everyone to work in the kitchen at the same time (although our kitchen is definitely spacious enough), so only a few of us worked in the kitchen together at once. But that gave everyone a chance to hang out together and have a little fun throughout the day.

Jessica made biscuits for breakfast; Jason and Adreanna enjoyed some. (I hope the others did, too. I didn't see.)

We started right in on the pie-making.

I realized that my boys hadn't made an appearance by 10:00-ish. I guess they all stayed up too late talking and playing games together.

This is how Kaylie makes meringue (for pie, not merengue dancing).

When all the food was prepped and the kitchen cleaned—around 10 p.m.—we all stayed up and watched Captain Marvel. Which was probably not the best idea on my part because it didn't end until nearly midnight. But...time with the family (at least until I fell asleep for the big ending). :-)

I woke up by 5:20 Thanksgiving morning, and finally decided to just get out of bed around ten-to-six. I was still tired, but wide awake, so I spent an hour finishing my Thanksgiving playlist on Spotify. (Because my life definitely has a soundtrack.)

When Bruce got up he made my breakfast for me so that I could work on the Thursday food-prep. All went smoothly. At noon the pickle and veggie trays were laid out on the table as well as the crackers, bread chunks, chips, and dips/spreads.

Guests started to arrive between 12:30 and 1:00.

The first thing the teenage girls did was get together to give each other fancy hairdos.

I'm not sure whether Hannah came with her hair done, or if they did it at my house. We should have lined them all up and taken pictures of their hair from the back; it was pretty fancy.

After a stop at the munchie-table, the kids went to play. I had some paper and crayons available, a baby doll and a Raggedy Ann out, and my dollhouse (with Barbies) lives in the great room; we have wooden train tracks, hobby horses, and Lincoln Logs... I hoped that would be enough to entertain them. It turned out to be perfect. (I have to admit that I was afraid it would be loud and chaotic—and it was! But it was happy chaos, so it was fun, and not bothersome at all.)

at the crayon table

I had imagined the boys playing with the building toys, and using the hobby horses alternately as transportation and swords, while the girls played with the dolls and dollhouse. Instead all of the kids had fun with the dollhouse... which I find delightful.

And dinner really was set out pretty close to 3:00, as planned. Yay!

The kids sat at the kitchen table (no carpet in the kitchen). Behind them you can see the grown-up table, and you can almost see the teenager table, too. We had another, smaller, table set up in the kitchen will all the food set out on it.

While we all sat around the table chatting, a lot of the kids went into the living room to watch How to Train Your Dragon, 3.

We had a little singing session around the piano, then pies and goodies (the baklava was a huge hit!), and more visiting.

We ended the evening by watching The Christ Child: A Nativity Story—which you should watch too; it's so good. Click here to watch it (about 18 minutes long).

By 10:00 p.m. we'd all said our goodbyes, sent people home with pies, and gotten the house pretty well straightened up.

I'm so glad we had everyone over, and that they had a good time. We had a really enjoyable Thanksgiving.