Thanksgiving

This year, we got to host two great Thanksgiving parties at our house. The first one was Michael's preschool's party, held the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  They played lots of games, like "Pin the Feather on the Turkey"

 And we had a feast of favorites--every kid brought their favorite food to share. Michael's was Mac and Cheese.

 Late Tuesday night, Taryn, David, and Aaron made their way to our house from Southern Utah. We had lots of fun with cute Aaron, who reminded us both so much of our Baby Michael.

 Rub a Dub Dub--two redheads in a tub! 

My parents arrived Wednesday night, and everyone else came on Thursday, except for Em, who couldn't swing it this year. We missed you, Lou. 

The kids at the bar loved getting their own special goblets again, 

 And in keeping with the tradition Thomas proposed two years ago, we took our cranberries in the form of juice this year.

 Before we dug in, I insisted on a picture. That's all I'm going to say about that.

 I was halfway through the meal before I had to remind myself to enjoy it. We had fantastic things--awesome rolls from Chelsea, salad, peanut butter M&M Oouflay (formerly known as Floouf), which was surprisingly amazing (nice work Ethan!), yummy veggies, cream cheese stuffed celery, stuffing, corn. Brian and I brined our turkey, injected our turkey, and gave it more attention than any food item I've ever prepared. It was good, but I'm not convinced that it was worth all the effort. Maybe we just cooked it too long. Regardless,  it was all fabulous. And it was nice to be together with my siblings.

 I tried to get a good picture of this group, but it was hard since they were in the corner. These three were so cute playing together.

 A few hours after dinner, we made cookie/candy turkeys. I think the kids enjoyed them.

 We also enjoyed pie--lots and lots of it! All too soon, Cal & Jess, and Chelsea and Thomas and their crew headed home.

The next day, after some serious lounging,

 we headed out to lunch at Five Guys (because we didn't have enough leftovers)

 caught a train

  

and joined in the craziness that is Temple Square the day after Thanksgiving. 

 It was quite cold, but we all had a good time. My wonderful dad kept stopping and talking to every set of sister missionaries we passed. We kept having to wait for him, so instead of getting upset, we decided to place bets as to how many sets he would talk to by the end of the night. I think my mom would have won with her guess of 14 sets if someone hadn't told my dad about it. In the end, Ethan won with his guess of eight. My dad has never met a stranger in his life.

 And then, we were back on the train, catching the Trax line at the perfect time to catch the 7 pm train home.

It was a fun adventure, and it was really nice not having to deal with finding parking downtown.

Everyone else left the next day. We really enjoyed having everyone around. We're so grateful to have such wonderful people in our family, and for our many, many blessings.