Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!Here are some pics from Thanksgiving. What a great time!!! After giving our house a much needed cleaning we were excited to have at our place Jed's parents, Mac and Janice, his sister Gina, her husband Jeff, and their five children: Zach, Megan, Nathan, Tyler and Trevor (yes, three year old twin boys!), Jed's sister Cara, and his sister Jenny and her guy Ben. 19 people, including us! We had a great time cooking the meal, which in my opinion is one of the best parts of Thanksgiving, and stuffed our faces the rest of the day. Jaeden gave the Thanksiving meal prayer, and he did a fantastic job of it. I have to say I thought my mashed potatoes and cornbread casserole were fantastic! I made a 20 pound turkey and despite everyone's best effort (well, besides Gina who just didn't help out much with the bird at all :), we still a week later have quite a lot of it left! We had pie, Turkey cookies (see the picture below!), and frog eye salad galore.

Friday was spent with people shoping (Gina and Janice left before 4, Cara and I around 5). This was my first foray into Black Friday Madness and I'm not convinced that I will do it again. Although I did get myself a new scrapbooking cutter at a fantastic price. Hannah and Megan also spent most of their day playing guitar hero IIi on the Wii and almost made it through the entire co-op series. What a bunch of rock goddessess! Anyway, I made Chili for supper and then we played Scatergories. It was tons of fun! Then everyone who had gotten up early passed out and we called it a night!

Saturday everyone else left in the morning for Ames and then drove to Des Moines to see the Nutcracker. From what I heard they had a great time. Of course that night they all went to Taco Time for supper. Jed got a turkey and stuffing crisp burrito that you dipped in gravy. Strange, but he said it was tasty!

The girls helping peel potatoes with some pointers from Grandma. I don't mind doing it, but it sure went faster with all their help and I must say the mashed potatoes turned out fantastic all eight pounds of them!

Ten of the thirteen grandchildren gathered to give thanks by eating a lot of food! This is (from the top) Liam and Logan, Nathan, Jaeden, Zachery, Annika, Megan, Tyler, Hannah and Trevor)
The buddies who look here like they are very much enjoying their food only made it a few more minutes before wanting out of the high chairs.

Hannah. If you look carefully, you'll see Braces. She got braces on her front four teeth the day before Thanksgiving. They didn't hurt much, she said, and she did get to put black and orange bands on them, which are her school colors.
Jenny with her amazing plate of food. She did such a great job of separating her food that I used her technique when I filled my plate. Later we ate Turkey cookies made by some Kirkwood students not me.

Annika getting ready to do Dance Dance Revolution
Hannah and Megan setting up Dance Dance Revolution.
Hannah and Megan rocking out! They had so much fun together. I can imagine them starting up a band in high school and taking the world by storm.
Logan also wanted to be a Rock God. I think he pulled it off!
Logan and I watching the girls rock out!
Cyber shoping can effect even the best of us. Right Ben? Ben? Ben? Snap out of it, Ben!
As Jed was leaving to go to Ames Annika was ready to go. She found this walkman and listened to CD's almost the entire weekend. She even had the headphones on while brushing her teeth. She also wants a car for christmas. Did she somehow turn 16 without us realizing it?

I have to say I wasn't sure I would survive hosting Thanksgiving for that many people, but I did and I enjoyed it. Maybe next time I will volunteer to do it instead of Jenny volunteering for me. Love ya Jenny!