Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Thanksgiving-month miscellany, in multiple parts: 

I. Callie is into decorating (to say the least).  She directed the production of the Happy Thanksgiving Everyone poster below, as well as creating another all by herself (which I must not have taken a photo of, and I'm really bummed about it! but it had a whole thanksgiving feast drawn by herself and it was adorable and oh-so-Callie).  It's hard to see very well, but Sam even got in on the artistry, drawing the two smaller pages in the above photo all by himself - the left one is a pumpkin (and actually resembles one, just zoom in to check it out) and the lower, right one is more of an abstract art piece.  Below the poster pic, you'll find a gaggle (seriously - I think we ended up with 13 by the time thanksgiving rolled around!) turkeys hanging from the ceiling.  Credit goes to Cal for that project, too.  I drew the turkeys and hung them up and she cut them out and punched the hole in the top.  (We both did two things, so it was equal.)  Also featured are four close-ups of Cal's favorite thing to draw this season: Indian Corn.

Too much goodness happening in this photo.  Ha.

II. As usual, we read a great many holiday-appropriate books from the library.  I still love the ones I shared last year on insta, but I've added the following to my "good enough to tell people about" list.  (Trust me, in the piles and piles we read, there were plenty of duds that weren't worth reading twice, so you know these ones are good if I post about them.)

These are great for Thanksgiving, but aren't technically
Thanksgiving books.  They'd be wonderful to read any time
of the year, honestly.  I like that.

Also not technically Thanksgiving books, these feel timely
when cranberries are popping up in stores.  I learned a ton
from both of these, and Callie particularly loved them
(as she is wont to do with books about growing things).

This one was my particular fave this year.

A few more goodies: some are "learny" and the rest are
timeless and sweet.

III. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving was dubbed "cooking day" by Callie.  We made cranberry sauce, pumpkin cheesecake with pecan gingersnap crust, cranberry salsa cream cheese dip and cheeseball (plus two batches of salsa - one for a friend's birthday and one because we needed more).  Do you notice a theme?  (Give me all the cheeeese! (And cranberries?))

I love the sight of this.  The popping was
delightful, too.

Sassy crust made from gingersnaps and finey
chopped pecans.  Yum!

The best part of cooking day, fo' sho.

Before cooking.
(I was so pleased when it came out that there was only
the tiniest sinkage in the middle and zero cracking of the top!)

IV. Our friends invited to make some cute thanksgiving crafts and treats and their house Wednesday morning.  (These are the same ones with the Halloween cookies.)  It was a fun time.

Callie, Charleigh and Sam eating the rolo pretzel turkeys
they just made. (Prestin was off driving cars around
or something, most likely.)

V. While the kids and I were crafting it up in Liberty, Gregg rode the train to Salt Lake to meet Heather and Scott and boys at Top Golf for a round before we all met up for our Blanchard Family Thanksgiving feast at Golden Corral.  (Callie was so excited to be eating at a buffet "where you can choose what you want to eat" (and she did - pickles and pickled beets and corn!).)  After lunch, we went to Heather and Scott's for naps, and trampoline jumping, and a walk to the park, and rock splashing in the river, and uno playing, and car driving, and PIE MAKING.  Of course, we also ate the pies we made.  And then it was time to drive home, past lots of houses bedecked with Christmas lights (including The Wihongis') to the delight of the kiddos.

bonus videos!

calandsam trampoline antics

Heather and Cal holding hands on the path to the
park.

Matchy matchy stripes.

Looking at pictures on Heather's phone - secret weapon to get
kids to snuggle with you.

Uno for all!

And Spot It was a hit, too.  Cal held her own
against her bigger cousins (and their cousin).

He asked to play with trucks and cars the second we got in
their driveway.  Good thing they're a house of boys and have
those kinds of toys.  He was in heaven.

Photo shoot for the pies.

Not much to look at, honestly.  But they tasted divine!
(Both are Mel's recipes, of course. On the left, Apple Crumble
and on the right, Chocolate Chip Cookie.)

He's my favorite boy.

Dinner is served!

VI. Turkey Day, at last!  We woke up, ate some breakfast, packed up our stuff, and hit the road toward Providence.  There we spent the morning setting up the tables, watching the Macy's parade, and doing puzzles.  We had a good-sized group dining with us at my parents' house, though it was smaller than originally planned due to a couple of my cousins not feeling too well (so they stayed home to watch Wonder Woman) and poor baby Bradley breaking his leg the night before (!! he slipped on the kitchen floor and twisted as he fell and got a spiral fracture in his femur!!) and getting it casted Thanksgiving morning (he had to be anesthetized for it!!) (so Nate's fam was napping most of the day and definitely not up for a day of Thanksgiving feasting).  We did have Grandpa and Grandma Thornley, Joan, Mike, Christine, Jeffery, Maurie, Kathryn, Mike, Tim, Savanna, Mom, Dad, Kim, Gregg, Callie, Sam, and Megan.  And of course I didn't get a picture of the crew on the looong row of tables stretching to the front door.  I'm bummed.  But we had a delicious meal.

Afterwards, some of us walked to the middle school a few blocks away for our annual Thanksgiving Turkey game (you know, like Horse, with a basketball, but called Turkey instead to be festive).  Some folks took naps, others played the piano, some took dinner to the Elwoods in Hyde Park with the broken baby boy.  But we all gathered back at the house for the best part of the day: pie!  What a spread!  After pie was more puzzling, visiting, and playing.  Our kids were both entertained by others, so both Gregg and I got to work on a puzzle without interruption!  Miracles.

But perhaps the biggest miracle of the day was watching my grandpa Thornley, who has not been able to hear well for years (and his hearing aids have not been helping at all) thus leaving him trapped in his own little world during any sort of group gathering.  He had ordered something called Bose Hearphones as another attempt to get back in the conversation, but he didn't have a device (smart phone, tablet, etc) that he could use them with and he was about to send them back.  But he brought them to Thanksgiving and asked for some help from his kids to see if it would be able to help him.  Long story short: it did!  And it was incredible to see the difference in his whole countenance as he was suddenly back in the conversation and back in the family.  It truly was a miracle.  I'm thankful for technology!

This Thanksgiving packing list brought to you
by the letter C.

9:50 am

9:57 am
(luckily this wasn't his only nap of the day)

Poor baby B in his spika cast.  He's in this for
8-10 weeks.  (Poor momma and daddy!)
(Another miracle of the day was that Aunt Joan
had extensive experience with these sorts of
casts from when two of her kids were in them
for months as babies.
She was able to go with my parents to help attatch
moleskin around the rough edges and to teach Nate
and Shelly how to change his diaper and other
necessary tricks.)

He stole this roll from the table before we all sat down to eat.

I think he was pretty proud of himself.

Turkeys all around.  (Except Mugs, who beat us all without
even scoring a letter.)

Minnie gets a turn on the swings.

Cal wasn't the most gracious of puzzle partners (she kept
pushing Grandma's hand out of the way so she could do it herself).
But it was cute to watch them together.

We puzzled and puzzed till our puzzlers were sore.

Jeffery, Joan, Grandpa, Sam, Mom, Savanna,
Kathryn.

Pie time! We had pumpkin, Kentucky derby, lime, chocolate,
cranberry pecan, and pumpkin cheesecake.  All were delicious.
I know from experience.

Auntie Mugs is a family favorite!

VII.  Black Friday dawned early (way, way, too early thanks to Sam).  We stayed over Thursday night, so Sam and I spent the early Friday hours playing with my dad's old Matchbox car collection until everyone else woke up.  After breakfast, Gregg and I decided to celebrate a "White Friday" doing sealings at the temple. The kids enjoyed a bus ride on "Manna Bus" (there's a stop right across the street from my parents' house) to the park to play while we were gone.  Ky and Michael came over, as well as my Elwood grandparents for a while.  We didn't do much else all day besides hanging out and eating lots of leftovers.  And do another puzzle.  (We were on a roll!)  After Friday night pizza and a movie (i.e. episode of Clifford on Netflix), we ended our Thanksgiving celebrations and drove back home to bed.

6:08 am

Bonus video!

"wishbone"