Thanksgiving

Our Thankful Tree

The Splendid Holiday, Thanksgiving.  Thoughts of family, naps, turkey bowl, games, feasting, and all the time in the world to get it done, right?  HAHAHA!  That evil little thing we call time.  There's just never quite enough of it.  Even when you get started a week a head of time!  Of course, this year we did tack a WEDDING at the end of Thanksgiving - so I guess that DOES put a bit of frenzy into the weekend. 


Brooke and Wes BARELY made it out of Sheridan, as their boiler system went completely out as they prepared to leave!  Aghhghghgh!!!  Thank the sweet heavens for Wes's Dad who volunteered himself to oversee that the repairs were made!! He win's the best father award!

TWO Thanksgiving miracles occurred.  The first is that ASHTON POOPS ON A TOILET!!!   A real, true and beautiful miracle.  The second was the SHANE DID NOT HAVE TO WORK!!! Only one tech was called out on Thanksgiving day - and he only had two jobs.  AMAZING!!


So, a week ahead of time I made a stunningly beautiful wedding cake.  Because there was NO WAY I was going to squeeze that between Thursday after dinner and Saturday morning.  Thanks again to Thanksgiving miracle number 3 - THANK YOU KRISTAL for letting me store the cake in your freezer.  Our drop freezer went out.  I had it plugged in for three days, and no chill.  Good neighbors are the best!

Wes especially likes the 'poous' which is snood upside down.

Also ahead of time I made Grape Sparkle (Grandma Shepherd's slush recipe) and Grandma's English Toffee.  Hooray!

Brooke and Wes didn't get out of Provo when they thought they would, so they showed up at about 11:00 a.m. Thanksgiving day.  No sweat.  I had the turkey stuffed with pine nut stuffing and in the oven, the rolls I baked the day before, along with making the pomegranate jello (sugar full and sugar free) and  whole cranberry sauce.  So the only things left were the potatoes and gravy and the grilled asparagus and whipped cream for the pies. (We bought pies this year, for shame.) Brooke and Wes provided some Welches sparkling juices that were tingly and fun to drink. However, its' still just amazing how many dishes you go through to get it all on the table!!  Dad and Lenore came early and we all ate lunch at about 1:00.  YEA for early Thanksgiving dinner.    The Grandparents took off to help Lenore's family get their dinner going, it was an evening meal.  We went on a Thanksgiving family walk with Stirling and sat outside to enjoy the warm weather.  The kids and dog ran around like crazy!


At about 5 we headed over to Natalie Berquist's (Lenore's Daughter in Law) house.  We had pie and visited some more.  The kids played outside and dressed up and enjoyed the swing set.  Ashton came out with a construction hat on and said, "Look!  I look like a cool guy!"  He loved dressing up.  One of the other grand kids latched onto Nathan.  He told Shane that Nathan was his new "Best Friend."  Cute little midgets!!  Brooke, Wes and left at about 7 to hit the movie.  But we missed it and purchased tickets for the next night.

Friday Wes, Dad, Uncle Ed and Austin went bird hunting.  Brooke and I took the boys to the Russ and Diane Watts brunch out in Coral Canyon at 11:30.  Lenore and Miriam were there with Miriam's three kidlets.  Plus Melissa and her kids were there and Diane's Daughter and her girls were there.  The kids jumped in the pool and had a fabulous time.  The brunch was tasty and it was good to see Merle and Kevin and relatives that I see on rare occasion.  After the brunch we went to visit Aunt Mindy and Summer and Sarah Shepherd.  We chilled on the couch and giggled and visited for a length of time.  The little boys were very happy playing dress up once again in the Shepherd basement.  The girls are so fun and I love seeing them!!

Later we took the kids and Stirling to the Dog Park to play and run and dash about.

I got a hold of a babysitter for the evening and we hit Catching Fire.  We didn't get home until almost 10:00 p.m.