Turkey Day.....

Thanksgiving is a big day around our house. It all starts early in the morning with some of us going and running the 5k, J.D. is darling and he stays home with the little ones and gets the house and the turkey ready. This year Jensen was particularly interested in helping with the bird. J.D. spends almost 3 days soaking the turkey in a brine solution with lots of spices....Jensen's mouth was watering for it even before it was cooked (eeewww!). He really enjoyed helping his dad this year, and I think J.D. really enjoyed having someone as interested in the preparation of the turkey as he was.

The girls, dressed and ready to go!!

The boys in all of their handsome-ness!!

Here is our especially long table. We love being able to sit everyone all at one table. It makes this day seem special. We move all the furniture and bring in 4 extra tables. I am not fancy enough (or crazy enough) to use nice dishes, I say the less clean-up after a meal like this the better. Don't we all have better ways to spend our time after eating (like looking at the ad's for Black Friday) rather than do the dishes. I think it all turns out okay and looks nice enough. No one has complained yet about the Dixie cups!

Dinner is served- Morgan, Brenna, Ella, Jake, Drew, Jensen, Lucas and Aliza.....

This year we decided to try something different. My sisters and I have always wanted an activity after dinner. We have done movies in the past, but usually no one really wants to get bundled up and leave the house. We are all usually too full and too relaxed to really go and do anything - plus we need to save our energy for the shopping.

Having a Gingerbread house making contest was J.D.'s idea and it went over really well!! And for an activity that was mainly meant for the kids, it was the adults who took over and suddenly became very worried about how their house would turn out.

Jensen was really the only one of the kids that stuck with it and wanted to see it through. He did a great job and next year he has informed me that he wants a house all to himself. He loved making the frosting drip into icicles off of the side of the house. He was very meticulous and wanted the house to look just right. We all had a few building malfunctions, the icing was not drying as fast as we were putting candy on, so our roof slipped a few times and I had to hold it until it dried. Corey and Janeens completely fell apart, so they ended up making theirs into a Manger scene with Mary and Joseph as the gingerbread men...very creative. No picture though. Sad.

Even Grandma and Grandpa got into the action. It was fun to see everyone have such a good time together. We were all covered in this yucky, sticky frosting by the time it was all said and done.

Julie, Bradley and Aliza were the big winners. Their house ended up looking just like the one on the outside of the box. They definitely win the prize for being the most patient with their house. They did a great job and they are using the Gingerbread house as the centerpiece on their kitchen table -

Jill and Mike worked on their house all alone - I don't think that any of their kids even tried to help. Mike raided my pantry and found some frosted mini wheat's and he used those for the shingles on the roof which made it WAY too heavy - it ended up sliding apart I think too. Oh well, what mattered is that it was a fun way to spend the evening on Thanksgiving.

We missed having Trent and Jana and their kids this year, also Brad and Christina with their family. Our table has been bigger in past years, so this year it actually seemed a little small. When you only seat 20 instead of nearly 30 there is a big difference. Hopefully next year we will all be able to be together again!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! This has become one of my favorite family traditions....