THANKSGIVING

Dear Family,

We had quite a Thanksgiving this year.  Doug brought Nate, Spence, Tom, Izzie, and Elena. Emily and John came with Joshua, Caroline and Joseph plus John's father Calvin. Mike and Rayanne brought their family with Rachel, Joseph, Emma, Camille and Michael. Suz and Scott came with their gang, Juju, Zandy, Timmy, Tilly and little Queen Elizabeth. Scott brought an coworker from India. Cathy and Pete brought Phillip. Lili, Amelia and little Henrie.Becca and Paul brought their kids, Abigail, Andrew, Anthony, Austin, Alexander and new little Annalise.

I think that was everyone but what I know is that there were little kids all over the place.  Here is a photo of Opa getting ready to carve a perfectly roasted turkey.

A dinner that is consumed in less than a half an hour takes days to prepare.  In addition to the turkey, I picked up some Turkey legs, brined and smoked them for a variety of tastes.  Those were delicious.  Doug brought over a deep-fried turkey. He had another Thanksgiving dinner later that evening.

I prepared the oyster dressing the day before.  Rebecca and her family came a few days early and was a great help. Rebecca, Cathy and Suz made some pie crusts and here is Becca putting on a really flaky top to a mince pie.  I grew up on Mince pie for Thanksgiving and they are hard to find.  This year we baked one.

Suz made a great pecan pie and Cathy had some perfect apple pies.  These were all the preparations in advance.  We had a 23lb turkey and usual baking stuffed called for a 6 hour roast.  So I set the alarm for five AM.  In the meantime, Suz decided to wake up Becca at 4 AM and they went to Walmart,( I think in their PJ's matching other Walmart people) to buy a turkey roasting bag. So we were all up, I stuffed the turkey and we bagged it and put it into the oven.  They cook a lot faster in the bag and it was done by 10:30 AM so we kept it warm till noon.  Then about noon, everyone showed up with their assigned side dishes and desserts and they were great.  Suz organized the list this year and we had great salads of all types, vegetables, various sweet potato dishes, mashed potatoes and a ton of other sides. I sliced the turkey and we were ready. Rayanne brought up some great salads and mashed potatoes Emily brought the pumpkin pie and tons of rolls.

I expressed thanks for all our blessings and especially the blessing of family and church. A benediction was given and then the serous eating got underway.  Parents helped the little kids and the rest got in line for the spread.

Here is a table with the teenagers.  Three kinds of turkey, several varieties of stuffing and all the sides added to a real feast of Thanksgiving.  Mom of course worked very hard to prepare the house and tables and add a little festive decorations.

We paused and Mom had her Thanksgiving play. I did not get a good shot of it but here it is with the little kids dressed as Pilgrims. They we got out the tons of desserts and by then it was time for a rest.  All took off up to Cheryl's in Deer Valley where they did some serious shopping at the outlets. Not enough boys for a football game.

It was a great Thanksgiving and we thank everyone who participated and contributed.

The next night we drove with Cheryl and Paul to Ogden to watch the first performance of the Nutcracker.  Lauren was one of the red soldiers, Mary Claire was one of the party girls, Olivia was the main buffoon, and Emily Eva was a hit as the littlest party girl.  She was great beaming and dancing all over the stage.  I turned and looked at Cheryl and she was just beaming when Little Emilie came out.  They all did great and it is so fun each year to watch them in the Nutcracker Ballet. Cheryl got us front row seats for this performance and it was so enjoyable.

So we are so thankful for family, the gospel which binds us together and am personally grateful to be around to watch all these grandkids grow up and blossom.

May Heaven watch over you all,

Love, Mom and Dad