Thanksgiving 2014

Although it was a very busy weekend, it was a GREAT weekend. It was very successful and we had an absolute blast! Here's a summary of the weekend:

• On Wednesday night, after a pretty good day together as a family (I took the day off and didn't do much that day), Amy's parents showed up right after we got home from the movies. We all went to see "Penguins of Madagascar" as a family. It was a pretty good movie, but probably NOT worth seeing at the theater. In fact, I'm not sure why we go to the movies to see any of the kids movies! We have a theater at home now and if we are just patient, we could buy the movies for cheaper....Here's Jantzen and I at the movies with Baby Jarrett. He didn't do so well at this movie - I spent a little time outside trying to make him happy...

• On Thursday, Amy really let me have some fun. I woke up early and played basketball at the Trilby building. It was some really great ball and was really fun, even though we had nearly 20 guys show up. I played until 9am, then went home, put on my cleats, and showed up at the Turkey Bowl at 9:30. We only played football until 10:30am, but it was really fun and we had a blast. I had 2 interceptions and threw 2 touchdown passes. It was really fun!
• When I got home and showered, we started preparing for the day. We had 18 people for dinner (including all of the children), plus we made some special dishes for the dogs (see below):
• We really love the new dining room table. It is SO great to have a table that is truly large enough for our family. It worked out GREAT! The food was awesome and the kids had a blast playing with friends and cousins!

• Here's another shot of some food preparation before dinner. Virtually everyone was involved in either cooking, setting the table or watching the children. I think I did more this year than ever before. It was a great time. Favorite part of food preparation was definitely pealing potatoes while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. That was a blast!

Here's the family and friend at the table. We had the older kids sit at the rest at the new table.

Our guest list was 18 in all:

• Our family (7 - including Jarrett)
• Grandma & Grandpa (2)
• Ryan, Jennica and Ben (3)
• Adam, Mary, Trey and Sierra (4)
• Chris & Hailey (2)

The best part of the meal was a formal offering of thanks at the end of the meal. Amy started by reading a story and then sharing her gratitude with everyone. Then we went around the table and had everyone do the same thing. It was really special and I was very proud of everyone and the things they shared. I will say that I'm very happy for Adam and Mary! Trey and Sierra are really great little kids. I'm happy that Adam has found a way to be a part of that family. I'm hoping that it remains a successful marriage!

After the dishes were done, we played some fun games, ate pie and continued to hang out for several hours. It was a fun day and I was glad to see everyone feel comfortable enough to hang out for a while. Ryan and Jennica were the last to go home. They were also the only ones to participate in the Black Friday sales. The rest of us just ignored them this year.

On Friday, LaMar and I did make it out to Lowe's to buy all of the material to make the shelving in the garage. We didn't actually have time to put up the shelving, but at least I have the materials now. I will probably get them installed over the Christmas break. It will be AWESOME!

I was also able to take Ryan and LaMar golfing at the Harmony course. We pretty much had the entire course to ourselves and we finished playing just before dark. It was actually quite warm outside, so it was nice to be able to play and have fun together. We just did a scramble for fun and we came in at just +1 over par. We played really well together and we really only struggled on one hole where we had a bad drive, but it all worked out in the end.

Over the weekend, we watched movies, did laundry, put up the Christmas Tree (but didn't get to the outdoor lights yet) and other things. On Saturday night, we took LaMar and Marilyn to see "Miracle on 34th Street" at the Candlelight Dinner Theatre. It was actually a really great show and the food was fantastic. It's always a treat to go to the dinner theatre.

 

 

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