Our Thanksgiving (A Few Days Late)

Gracie sneaking in the picture of our dinner.

We had planned on having Thanksgiving dinner at home this year, but last minute we decided to go to my cousins house in Ogden. I had already bought the food for dinner so on December 2nd we had our own Thanksgiving dinner. The kids were thrilled to have our normal dinner complete with ham instead of turkey and homemade rolls. Now all we need is a bigger table so we can all sit together. :)

Hannah wanted in on the picture taking too.

The kids all eating happily.

Happy Thankgiving

We went to my cousin Michelle's house for Thanksgiving this year. It was a quick trip, dinner started at 2:00 and we had to be gone by 3:30 but it was nice to spend some time there. The kids enjoyed playing in the basement and Adam didn't even bother to come upstairs and eat dinner. My families Thanksgiving dinner is different than the Thanksgiving dinner that my kids are used to and they didn't like most of the food. They did eat some though and they enjoyed seeing family.  We headed home so Kenny and I could go out and do some Black Friday shopping. Black Friday seems to be getting earlier and earlier, but with 6 kids it's fairly important for us to get those deals, besides we enjoy it.

Grandma and Gracie

Adam playing ping pong.

The kids table

The big kids playing in the basement

Thanksgiving FHE

The kids busy working on their turkeys.

Gracie coloring her turkey.

Dan showing off his turkey parts.

I decided to try and be a good mom this year for Thanksgiving and I planned a cute Thanksgiving Family Home Evening. Like everything in my life, I didn't leave enough time and we were rushed, but we still managed to get it all done. We started out with the normal FHE stuff and then had a lesson on the first Thanksgiving. We read a book and talked about all the Pilgrims went through and how the Indians helped them. We talked about what this has to do with being thankful and then we talked about all that we're thankful for. Afterwards, we headed upstairs to make our Thankful Turkeys. This took a long time and included more whining from the kids and more work for me than I would have liked, but in the end the kids all managed to make their turkey. They each insisted on their own individual picture with their turkey because they enjoyed them so much. Oh, I made pumpkin bread as our snack. See I can have some good mom moments.  :)

Adam and his Thankful Turkey

Sarah took her coloring very seriously and her turkey turned out great.

Ben's turkey.

Gracie and her finished turkey.

Dan and his Thankful Turkey

Hannah was very proud of her turkey.

Adam enjoying some pumpkin bread.

Happy Thanksgiving

Taking pictures on Nikki's computer.  It's so much fun having a big cousin around.

We had a little change of plans this Thanksgiving   In October we got an email from my in-laws inviting everyone to Grace for Thanksgiving   We thought it over and decided it would be best for our family to stay in Salt Lake rather than go to Grace.  We didn't really have the money to drive to Grace and we didn't want to miss out on the Black Friday deals that began at 8:00 that night.  Black Friday is important to us because it helps us afford Christmas.  We respectfully declined the invite and planned on having Thanksgiving with just our little family.  

Alli and Gracie

Hannah and Cadence

Beautiful Sarah Kate

The week before Thanksgiving Nielsen's, Dearden's, and Kenny's parents went to Disneyland.  While there they all came down with an nasty stomach flu and were all throwing up by the end of the trip. Because of this and because they decided it would be best to be in Salt Lake to make decorations for the Festival of Tree's tree, more on that later, they decided, right before Thanksgiving to change their plans.  The day before Thanksgiving we got a call from my mother-in-law asking if we'd be interested in having Thanksgiving in Salt Lake at Mindy's clubhouse.  I'll be honest, at first I was a little weary about it.  They had all been sick and some were still throwing up, and I didn't want my family to get sick.  For the past few years we've had Thanksgiving at our house with just our family and I've grown to kind of like that.  All of that aside, I knew we'd have fun if we went to Thanksgiving with everyone else, so we agreed to be at Mindy's on Thanksgiving.  

Ben and Zack

DanDan

It was a very simple, yet yummy Thanksgiving which is just how I like it.  All the food was prepared before we got there so there was no cooking and very little clean up.  Everyone was in charge of bringing something so one person didn't have to make too much. The meal was delicious and the kids really enjoyed playing with each other.  The weather was fairly nice so the kids spent a lot of time playing on the nearby toys.  It was perfect.  The only downside to it all was that 2 days later our family and Kingston's all got the stomach flu.  Not fun, but it passed and looking back at it, I'm glad we went to Thanksgiving with everyone.  

Cutting the pies.

Waiting for pies.

Thanksgiving

All the kids making turkey's.

We had another low key Thanksgiving this year.  It seems as though we're getting good at those low key events.  My family was celebrating the holiday in California with my Aunt and Uncle and their kids and my in-laws were in Denver with my brother-in-law's family, so we were on our own.  It was nice to spend a quite day at home.  I miss the family get together's that Thanksgiving always brought me as a child, but I also enjoy the simplicity.

We started our Thanksgiving day out by making our cookie turkeys from last year.  The kids enjoyed making a huge mess and making all sorts of crazy turkey concoctions.  It was a lot of fun and I'm pretty sure we now have a Thanksgiving tradition.  Not much happened the rest of the day.  We played around and then had a simple Thanksgiving dinner.  Kenny doesn't like turkey and I'm fine with that so ham it was again this year.  I didn't cook as much as I did last year because we never eat it all.  I did freak out over the sweet potatoes and Kenny had to send me to timeout, but other than that it was a great day.

The boys hard at work.

Little girls taking time out of turkey making to smile for a picture.

Adam didn't care much for the turkey's, but he loved the cookies.

One of Gracie's turkey's

Hannah proudly showing off her turkey.

Sarah's turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at home this year. Just our little family. It was sad knowing my family was all together at my Mom and Dad's house and Kenny's sisters and parents were all together in Draper, but at the same time it was nice to be home with just us. Kenny's been gone so much lately that we really enjoyed having a day where he could stay home. I cooked a small Thanksgiving meal with ham instead of turkey (Kenny doesn't like turkey and that's fine with me.) Even though we had a small dinner, we had way too much food, most of which the kids didn't want to eat. I've decided that next year I'll forgo the traditional Thanksgiving dinner and just cook a good dinner everyone will eat.

Our modest Thanksgiving dinner.

We took a trip to Walmart to see if we could find some winter boots for Sarah (she doesn't have any that fit and we haven't been able to find any in her size.) While there we got snack stuff and just enjoyed the fairly empty store and the time together. We came home, finished cooking dinner, ate, watched' Elf' and just spent time together. It was a wonderful, quite day and was refreshing for a change.

The kids waiting for dinner to start.

I have so much to be thankful for. Most people who look at my life could easily wonder what on earth I have to be thankful for, but I assure you there are many things. I'm thankful for my husband who is willing to do anything to try and support his family in this bad economic time of our life. He amazes me at just how hard he works and I have faith that one day it will pay off. I'm so grateful for his amazing ability and willingness to be the best Daddy I know. I'm so thankful for my wonderful, silly, sometimes overwhelming kids. I can't imagine life without them. They keep me on my toes and keep me moving everyday. Because of them I am forced to better myself and find a way to be happy when things get really bad. I love watching them grow and change and interact with one another. They are my greatest joy in life.

I'm so unbelievably thankful for my Heavenly Father. I know without a doubt that my life has been enriched by Him and by the simple fact that I know He's there. It's scary to think of where we would be without His hand in our lives. He has carried me so much more than I'd like to admit. Those times I know I can't go on, I know I just need to talk to Him and he will carry me through. It may sound cheesy, but I've felt it and I know without it there's a good chance I would not be sitting here.

I'm thankful for all the normal things people are thankful for. The church, a beautiful house, friends and family, food and clothing. I may be without many things that people take for granted like a vehicle that has a seat for each of my family members or the ability to buy Christmas presents, but the 'normal' things missing in my life only strengthen my gratitude for the things that I do have. I am a very lucky person and though life is harder than it's ever been in so many ways, I don't think I've ever felt this much gratitude in my heart. Certainly not for the little things that make life possible.

Turkey Fun

In trying to cut the school budget, our district has lengthened the school day which allows the kids to have more days off during the school year. So, Ben and Sarah had the entire week of Thanksgiving off this year. It was so nice to have them home. Even though things are a little crazy around our house, I'm always glad when all my kids are at home.

I wanted to take some time to celebrate Thanksgiving this year. I'm not huge fan of Thanksgiving. It seems over the years its become a holiday known as 'the day people celebrate having food by eating way to much of it' as Garfield says. It's lost that family, thankful feel for me. So, I decided to bring it back. No matter what's going on around us I've decided to remind my kids why we celebrate Thanksgiving and to give it the recognition it deserves.

It turned out to be a good thing I planned some fun indoor activities because the snow began to fall on Saturday. The snow fell and fell and fell and then the wind blew and blew and blew. Most of the other school districts in the area cancelled school, business' shut down early and we stayed in our warm little house enjoying some family time. It was nice to be snowed in with the kids. Kenny went out and worked, went grocery shopping for me because our tire is really bald and I didn't dare drive the car (not that he dared let me drive the car,) and took Hannah to speech. We missed him when he was gone, but we're grateful he was willing to work and go out in the blizzard for us.

Anyway, back to our activities. Monday night for FHE we had a night about Thanksgiving. I let Sarah Kate give the lesson on the first Thanksgiving. She loves to help out and give the lesson and she does a good job with it. I'm working with her on not talking so much, limiting her information, and basically keeping it short and simple. She could go on and on, but the others have very little attention spans. After our lesson we went to the table to make our Thankful Turkey. Each kid, who's old enough to talk, got 2 turkey feathers that they could color and label with something they're thankful for. I glued them all on a turkey body and our family Thankful Turkey was born and took his rightful place on our fridge.

Coloring our turkey feathers.

Things to be thankful for

Sarah: Indians and Pilgrims (can you tell she gave the lesson)

Ben: America and Life

Hannah: Drinks and My House

Gracie (with a little help from Ben): Food and Painting

Mom and Dad: Family

Hannah displaying her purple and pink colored feathers.

After the Thankful Turkey was made, we had some fun making some yummy cookie turkeys. Hannah brought one home from speech the week before and I thought it would be so fun to make as a family. They turned out real good and the kids had a lot of fun making them. After making a few of turkeys I let the kids go crazy making whatever they wanted while I fed the baby. They had a blast and came up with some very creative things.

Gracie's turkey cookie. She did a great job and I love her chocolaty hands.

Sarah Kate gluing her second turkey together with frosting.

Hannah proudly displaying her turkey with its wings backwards.

Ben's turkey with it's rather high wings.

Dan had fun eating chocolate cookies. He loves the flash on the camera and I snapped this after the flash went off. Then . . .

I played peek-a-boo behind the camera and this is what I got. Man I love this kid.