Our long Holiday weekend

My Thanksgivings have changed quite a bit since being married and living away from family. Though they are different they are still fun and meaningful. Growing up in a large family I was used to early mornings (for me they seemed early) of chaos, lots of people in the kitchen, the smells of all kinds of foods filling the house, the making of MANY MANY pies the night before, games with siblings, the parade in the morning. Thinking back I have so many fond memories, most of them have to do with making LOTS of pies! One year we literally made I believe it was 15 pies, it could have been more but I'm gonna go with 15. It was crazy! We all wanted different kinds and so, they were ALL made. I loved it, though. The day/night before us girls would be in the kitchen for hours laughing, some times fighting, and enjoying time with each other making a million and one pies. Like I said over the years my Thanksgiving have become quieter and quieter. This year was just a bit different as I had one of my sisters here to help me do the cooking. A friend of ours got the church reserved and organized a bunch of us students getting together that were sticking around for the long weekend. That way we all didn't have to spend Thanksgiving alone. It was nice to be with lots of friends, I'm glad it worked out. I had very little to bring to the dinner, it seemed like such a calm morning with not a whole lot to cook up. I asked my sister, Angela, who is used to the chaos of home, if this was kind of strange not having the kitchen packed with people, no turkey, no stuffing, no potatoes to make. She agreed it was a little weird and not some thing she is used to. But I was so glad to have her here, it made it seem like I was a little bit closer to home. I was thinking, though I miss those days of "home" I am grateful for MY family and that I can start new traditions with my children and spouse and keep old traditions going with my family. And so we started some fun traditions.

We started the day before by making a fun Thanksgiving craft. I think this is some thing I will want to do every year while my children are young. Here are our Leaf turkeys we made, it was so fun and Angela's turkey turned out SO cute! E and I made a craft together, a Momma and baby turkey! And J just glued leaves on paper and he loved every second of it.

Next, I wanted my kids to understand that Thanksgiving is more than just eating a lot, but that it is a time to reflect and be Thankful for all our blessings. In Primary on Sunday the singing teacher asked the kids what they do on Thanksgiving and all of them yelled out "Eat turkey!" it was cute and funny but I thought, "I want my kids to know that it is more than just eating turkey." So I made our wall a "Thankful Wall" and on Thanksgiving morning I had E and J list off things they were thankful for, with a little coaxing E came up with a lot of things to be thankful for and J just repeated everything his sissy would say as he scribbled all over the wall. It was cute to listen to E come up with things to be thankful for, like Chalk, ha ha.
We kept the tradition of making too many pies. We only made four, but four is a lot for a family of four. We brought them to the gathering at the church and only one and a bit of another got eaten so we gave one away and took the rest home. The kids had so much fun "helping" make the pies, although I did not use their crusts they rolled out in the actual pies (for good reason) they still had fun helping mommy and Angela. We also kept the tradition of watching the parade while cooking, it was fun to watch my kids enjoy it as much as I did when I was young.
This is what J did much of the time while we made pies....he stacked any thing and every thing that would stack until it would fall. He loved doing this over and over, it was so cute.
At the church we had about 20 people or so and we had LOTS of food, all which was so good. The best part was being able to spend time with friends and enjoy the Holiday together. Also letting the kids run wild and watching the dads and missionaries shoot hoops.
I love this picture because look how full every one looks, all holding their full stomachs and then.... they played ball!

Yesterday I slept in, until 10 AM!! it was so nice. I have been a little sick and so my wonderful hubby let me sleep in. I wanted to go shopping but was not feeling well and wanted to rest until we went out as a family to go bowling. I felt better by late afternoon and off to the bowling alley we went. We all had fun, mostly watching the kids attempt to hold those heavy bowling balls. Today I think we will go shopping some more and maybe ice skating, we'll see how we are all feeling.
I'm so grateful for my family and for this fun long weekend we were able to spend together, we love having Daddy home so much! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving this year too!