Thanksgiving at Our House

We've been having Thanksgiving at our house for the last few years, mostly because Jim often worked on the Friday after Thanksgiving. It is becoming somewhat of a tradition for us to host Thanksgiving here, whether our family can come or not. My brothers do have other family they like to celebrate with sometimes.

This year we had Tim and Cindy with their boys, plus my folks. Lorene chose to work at Applebee's on the morning shift so we planned for a late dinner, which is a departure from our usual right at noon feast.


I love traditions as much as the next person, but I'm trying to cultivate a positive attitude for everything that happens, even change.


Our Thanksgiving weekend started with celebrating Nathan's birthday. Since he was born on Nov. 25th, Thanksgiving Day in 1993, his birthday means we always have chocolate cake as part of the Thanksgiving desserts. This year we had a cake for nephew Jake, too, since his birthday is in November.

This is a big one for Nathan --16 years old -- Wow, he's been looking forward to this, to the day he can drive off to Walmart by himself. The first thing he said about having his license, was that he wanted to run any errands that day. Luckily, he doesn't seem inclined to want to run all around yet. And I hope that never comes. He is a nice kid in a lot of ways.

There were a lot of candles to light, with Nathan's 16 and Jake's 13. Of course, those boys did the lighting themselves. Give a boy something to burn and a lighter and STAND BACK.

I didn't get a picture of Nathan's gifts. It was hard enough getting him to cooperate for the yearly picture of all three kids together than we take at Nathan's birthday time.

It's been fun to have these pictures as the kids grow up to see their sizes compared to each other. Nathan is taller than both girls. But I wonder if Lorene has shoes on, because Nathan does.

Aunt Cindy with a gift for Zane, he doesn't look interested. He doesn't know how much fun it is to rip paper of something for him. He does like digging in the magazine bin and tearing up those, though.

Entertainment

Nathan and Jake entertained themselves by wrestling all over the living room. The rest of us were entertained when Zane decided to join the fun.

Titus was giving us a demonstration of Taekwondo forms. This is the only picture that has most of us in it. Mom is hiding behind the computer and I am hiding behind the camera.

It was such a beautiful day! We never know what sort of day we'll have in November in Nebraska. The kids played outside before our big meal.

Nathan and Jake are showing Zane how to use the car. His first time in it.

The Big Feast

We had a HUGE turkey, 22#, a free range, hormone free chicken done in the rotisserie for Cindy, and ham, plus all the other things, sweet potato, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, green bean casserole, dressing, jello, buns, butter, jam.

Since we didn't eat until 4, we had a snacky sort of eat all morning until 1:00, when I put everything away. I put out the relish tray I usually serve with the meal; sausage, cheese and crackers; a veggie tray; and little smokies.

Now for the Fun!

We've never yet let Zane have quite this much fun with his food. But it sure made us laugh and get some cute photos. They probably should go in the Entertainment section, since I don't think there was much eating going on.

Mashed Potatoes, food or cosmetic?

YUM!

Resting after food and dishes.

At Last-- PIE