Thursday, November 26th, Thank full for so much

This was probably the most perfect Thanksgiving in recent memory. The food went without a hitch, thanks to my incredible husband and my organizational skills. We had more than enough for 21 people. The only thing that was missing was mom, but we ate many of her traditional dishes and talked about her.
I did indeed work last night and didn't get home until about 8:45. I made baked oatmeal last night and I came home to the wonderful smell permeating the house. After sitting down with my family for breakfast, I finally got to bed at 10:30. With all of the adults in the house, and my carefully executed directions, I got up at 1:30 to help finish things off.
The girls made our traditional turkeys. This goes back to Grandma Bev and we have been doing it for years. This year, I didn't buy the usual fruit roll ups for the waddle because the package was so big and I end up throwing them away. Well, each turkey instead looks like he is armed for battle to defend his life!!
When I got up, the cousins were playing poker at the dining room table. They love to play games together.

Candice is a great help in the kitchen and never has any hesitation when asked to help out. We managed to get all 21 people at one table. It was crowded, but oh, so much fun.
The pretty and simple table scape. I had a center piece planned, but forgot about it, which was a good thing because then there was room for the food down the center of the table. Also, I forgot about Thanksgiving napkins, so we used Christmas napkins and folded them the other way. They matched quite nicely.
Dan's usual job on Thanksgiving is to carve the turkey. Chuck made two, one in the roaster and one on the grill, for a total of 34 pounds of turkey. They were absolutely delectable and we had very little left over. The grilled one was so good that Chuck and I decided that in the coming weeks, we will get another one and grill it. The food getting passed. Again with the load of people in the house, we didn't get to go around the table and say what we were thankful for. My heart was so full, in addition to my belly, that I don't think I would know where to begin.
A sampling of our food. Now this person obviously didn't chose everything. There were also delicious brussel sprouts, German red cabbage and Mom's traditional stuffing, now made by Beryl. There were great crusty rolls also. I have the genetic defect of poor gravy making, so Chuck made the gravy. It was great!! Again, we followed Mom's lead and boiled the necks til the meat falls off and add some drippings. He used cornstarch instead of gravy and it was beautiful.
Poor Steve, I am not sure how he took this loud, laughter filled family. They had driven all night Tuesday to get here and he said that Thursday was his tiredest day.
The grandpa's keeping each other company and watching football.
After the dishes were done and dessert was ingested, we got down to playing some games. No Risk this year, but Catie and Steve introduced us to "Bowl of Nouns". Very fun! Charades, Password, and Taboo all in one.
The kids also played Chronology while I did the dishes. Candice wanted to play with David, the history teacher. Don't know how that turned out. He probably skunked them all!
This weekend was especially sweet because Peter and his new wife Kelly are going to South Korea for 14 months to teach English. They are leaving on December 10th. He always entertains us and right before everyone turned in for the night, he and Nathan did the "you will be my arms" bit. We laughed til our sides ached! He is eating a banana. At one point, Nathan broke off part of it and put it in his pocket, smashed it and then took it our and fed it to him.

Let me just say, without hesitation, I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!!!