Thanksgiving Day

It was my first time pulling off Thanksgiving dinner by myself, and I must say it went fairly smoothly.  Since it was our turn for Thanksgiving with the Nielsen's and LaMarr and Diane are on their mission, I volunteered to have it here.  It was also Todd's family, Melisa's family, Sharlynn, and Traci's turn for the Nielsen year so between all of us, we had a great spread of food and way too many pies.

Shar came a day early because she wanted to learn how to make pies.  I did talk Trevin in to making his annual pie, but I had to take over for Tyrel and Travis because I couldn't talk them into it since I had help from Shar.  We ended up with 7 pies, that was almost 1/2 a pie a piece but no one ate that much so we had lots left over.  Trevin made an Oreo pie and then Shar and I made 2 pumpkin, 2 apple cream, chocolate peanut butter, and banana cream.  I brined the turkey the night before and I was also in charge of potatoes, gravy, and stuffing.  Sharlynn made her yummy rolls and did the vegetable tray, Haylee brought her yummy sweet potatoes and cranberries and then they threw in the most delicious cheese ball and crackers for snacking on.  Traci brought junkfood salad, and Melisa brought corn and green bean casserole.  It was all so yummy!

We ate at noon and then the boys went out and played football in the street while the girls worked on our Thanksgiving craft project that was almost a failure because the vinyl wouldn't stick to the paint, but I think we all got ours working eventually.  Carter was so cute, he came in saying "That Tyrel, he is tricky."  I guess he can outrun all the little guys.  The weather was so mild that the kids were all able to play night games with just their jackets on.  They played ghost in the graveyard and I kept hearing the little kids say "Tyrel is freaking me out." but they had fun.  Travis had to work in the evening, so he missed all the kid fun.

The Affects of Tryptophan

The saying must be true because even in a noisy room with all of us talking, this is what happened to grandpa and grandma after the yummy turkey dinner!



We has a smaller crowd than expected for Thanksgiving this year. There was only 17 of us and we made 6 pies! The food was great and I made 2 pumpkin and 1 apple cream pie. Then, according to tradition, the boys each made a pie also. Tyrel made chocolate peanut butter again this year. It is really rich so I cut it into lots of little pieces and it was still too big of pieces. Everyone had to share with their spouses.

Travis made a frozen chocolate mousse pie. It was hard to cut, but everyone loved it and thought it tasted like an ice cream pie.

Trevin made a banana cream. He rolled out the crust by himself (Travis and Tyrel used pre-made chocolate crumb crusts) and he even cooked the pudding instead of using the instant kind. It is the only pie that there is none left of today. It totally disappeared.

Haylee, Traci and I decided to do a Thanksgiving craft later in the evening while the boys were watching some football. I had some tiles left by the previous owners of our house, so we spent WAY TOOOOO much time trying to find the saying we wanted, but here is the one I did. This is word art from Elegant Word Art by Bethany and it is from The Proclamation To The World.

I love how it looks. Haylee did the same one as me and Traci did a different one, but she went shopping instead of finishing hers so I don't have a picture to post.

Busy, Busy, Busy....

I haven't written in a while. This time of year is always crazy. Last week we had our Young Women Evening of Excellence, so I was busy the week before that making invitations (which turned out way cute if I don't say so myself). The theme was "The Beauty Within" and the girls all got makeovers (makeup and hair) before and we borrowed a bunch of formals from women and girls in the ward for them to dress up in. They all looked beautiful. The boys escorted them to their seats for the dinner with their parents and then the boys also served dinner. The deacons didn't get invited to help (ha ha). But the Teachers did, so Travis got to dress up and he did look mighty nice. I had to give the lesson on Sunday so that took up some time. It takes a lot more preparation to teach the young women than it did to teach the 4 year olds I had in Primary before I got this new calling.

This week is Thanksgiving. In Sunday School our teacher had us go around the room and everyone had to say something we were thankful for but there couldn't be any repeats. All of the ones I could think of got taken before it got to me (family, good health, nice area to live in, etc) So by the time it got to me I was afraid there woudn't be anything left. I decided at the last minute that I am thankful for having the Priesthood in my home. Pretty good one huh?!!

I guess I'll have to end this for now. Thanksgiving is at my house, so I have to get cleaning done today because the boys will be home tomorrow and I have pies to make tomorrow to get ready for the big day!

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving and remember to think about all of things you are thankful for this year!