Turkey Day

We had such a great Thanksgiving Day. I love Thanksgiving because it is our holiday. Since we live so close to Jason's family members most of our holidays are spent with them which makes it difficult to create our own family traditions. Now that Jason's brother's kids are married and having kids things are separating a little bit. This year we decided to invite a family from our ward for Thanksgiving. They are in law school and I am sure that this is the first year in their marriage they have spent a holiday away from family. They have 6 month old twins and a 2 year old. My mom also invited a family from her ward who are here doing a residency. They also have a 2 year old and a 4 year old. It was the Thanksgiving of toddlers. Jonah asked me before dinner why we couldn't have Thanksgiving with just our family. Believe me it sounded great to me too. But I explained to him how hard it is to spend holidays away from family. I think both families were happy to be invited.

I made the kids' favorite orange rolls for breakfast and then we held our first annual family turkey bowl. It was a combination of football and capture the turkey (flag). I will post pictures later since I'm typing this on Jason's laptop. It was freezing but the kids had so much fun. We ran all over the yard trying to keep warm and finally Jason and I were ready to be done. Jonah and Emma both wanted to keep going so we consented and played a few more rounds.

I always forget how much time it takes to do all the last minute details for Thanksgiving dinner. I had made everything that I could the day before so I was feeling pretty good. Then I realized that we needed potatoes--minor detail. Luckily Jason peeled them all for me while I cleaned things up for the guests.

Since we had so many toddlers I brought a little sandbox in the house and filled it with rice and cups and spoons. The little kids had a great time and the big kids did suduko and built legos. It was a great dinner. I tried a few new recipes from Williams-Sonoma which I loved but which wee a little too different for Jason's traditional parents. Everyone left by 7:00 and I was exhausted. We got the little kids to bed and then hung out with Eli and Jonah having a great time. They are so much fun when it's just us and them. We need to do it more often.

All in all a great Thanksgiving Day.