Thanksgiving

8 Days later.....here's our Thanksgiving.

We woke up to this:

Which was actually really fun.

The kids woke us up, really, long before this picture was taken. They woke us up with a, "Boo!! And Happy Thanksgiving, Mama and Dad! Today is Thanksgiving! And Josh and Liisa are here. So are we going to go over there? Happy Thanksgiving!"

Just like that.

So we got up, made breakfast, and since it was way too early to head over to my parent's house, we made these instead:

I had to run to the store, so I left Danny in charge of making the YELLOW cake cupcakes. I came back to 24 party chip cupcakes. I was not a happy mama. And looking back now, it was pretty ridiculous to get mad at all. Because how many daddies would say, "Of course!" when you asked them to make 2 dozen cupcakes? Not all of them, I know that.

But I like things to be exactly how they should be.

But I guess they should have been party chip because they turned out beautifully.

The kids had a blast decorating them

And Alice had a blast eating the frosting. Duh.

And here is the best out of the 3 that were made:

It seems as though he has a nasty case of conjuctivitis. Chocolate conjuctivitis.

And after the cupcake party (it's always a party if cupcakes are involved) it was time to play in the snow.

What's that? You're wondering why Jamie is wearing a pink floral snowsuit? Danny took one look at this kid playing in the snow and immediately hopped online to get him a cool BOYS' snowsuit. Sorry, Jamie.

Then it was time to cook.

We made mushroom stuffing and used these funky guys:

And lots more:

And we also made creamed onions which required lots and lots of peeled boiler onions.

This isn't just a picture of Danny's pretty eyes. He literally could not keep his eyes open. Oh, well, you suffer for beauty...uhh....deliciousness.

And we like to pretend we are tv chefs, so we prep all our food and put them in little bowls.

And at 4:00 we were out the door:

And Lala and Papa's house was decked out for the meal, complete with these wine glasses that I so creatively helped my mom decorate with beads around the stem a few years ago...

....and a beautiful centerpiece made by our very own Maria Grace.

But then it was showtime.

There is no messing around when it comes to competitive cookie/candy turkey making.

And somewhere along the way, Jamie ditched his turkey and ate his weight in candy corn.

It ended up that Maria won, which is totally bogus. She submitted 3 entries, when the rules clearly state you can only submit one. But as long as she beat Josh, that's all that matters. And she did.

But after turkey making, work still has to be done.

The kids were in charge of putting the butter leaves at each spot and they did a fantastic job.

While I drank almost a full bottle of sparkling cider. I love that stuff.

We had lots of friends and family at Thanksgiving, Kara included:

It was the 5 (well, really 6) of us, Mom and Dad, Kara, Patrick, Josh and Liisa, Sally, Tracy, Nate and Abbey, and Grandpa.

And finally, it was time to eat:

Oh, that giant turkey leg? Yep. There's Maria for you.

And here is Jamie for you: :)

And sweet Miss Alice eating whatever we put in front of her:

Nothing says "fancy" like drinking water out of a wine glass (and I guess also giving Mama a creepy sideways peek).

Alice got bored with the meal and decided to play with olives. She smashed up those suckers until our spot looked like this:

sick.

Ya know that moment when the cook finally just gets to rest? Here it is:

And Danny, too, of course. It is really hard work to eat Thanksgiving dinner.

And while they were resting, others were cleaning:

And then (drumroll please).....BINGO!

Bingo is probably the best part about Thanksgiving. Yeah, the gravy is pretty freaking good, but so is winning sweet prizes.

Maria wanted to call out numbers, so she did (because basically Maria gets to do whatever she wants)...and she was awesome.

It's like she went to Bingo school or something.

"And NOW we have....B-9....B-9....anyone have it?"

Like I said, awesome.

And somehow, we ended up with all of this:

Because Jamie gets whatever he wants too.....and if he mentioned that he wanted that Rudolph, you can bet that Papa worked his you-know-what off to win him that Rudolph. Not like it was the first prize to go, but I bet Papa would have like to win back some of that money on the board....

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful.