Thanksgiving

 We kept all of our favorite traditions this Thanksgiving: pre-Thanksgiving leftovers all week, family turkey trot, pie first, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving lunch, and Thanksgiving dinner with the White family in Grandview. Since we always go to Jeff's parents' house for Thursday Thanksgiving dinner, we like to make our own turkey, taters, etc. before Thanksgiving and enjoy the leftovers all week leading up to Thanksgiving. So that's what we did. The weekend before Thanksgiving, I cooked up a massive feast that lasted us seven days. I made three pies, baked yams and apples, bacon green beans, cranberry orange sauce, rolls, and gravy. Jeff spatchcocked the turkey and mashed the potatoes. Jeff, Jay, and Rose peeled the potatoes. Amber and Rose helped with the rolls. 

On Sunday afternoon (Nov. 21st) we were all in the kitchen working together for nearly two hours! It was happy, chaotic, bustling, and crowded with ten elbows in our weird cute galley kitchen. The requisite creativity from large scale feast prep in a small space kept it interesting: we had rolls rising balanced atop cereal boxes in the pantry to make room for all the peeling, stirring, carving, and zesting. We had to keep shifting the Tetris puzzle of pans and bowls as we cooked more. It was tiring doing all of that prep, but nice that everyone was invested enough to stick around and help (even if some help was more helpful than others, haha). 

This year, Jeff's brother Sam visited with his girlfriend Katherine and we all enjoyed getting to know her. They stayed from Tuesday to Friday, and we got in some good bonding sessions with them for three days in a row. On Tuesday evening, we had a girls night with the four "White women" (Jeff's mom and sister Leslie and Steph, plus the in-law--me, and the potential in-law--Katherine), at a flower arranging class hosted by a winery. I wasn't so sure about an evening in a room full of people sipping wine and making floral centerpieces. 3/4 of us don't even drink alcoholic beverages, and the whole thing sounded a bit hoity-toity for my tastes, haha. But when the evening began, my concerns quickly faded. Katherine was so nice and fun and easy to talk with, and I liked getting to know her. 

Even though I may never again create a massive bouquet composed of 20+ different plants, I was able to embrace the novelty of the activity and find some sort of groove with it. Flower arranging is in no way my calling, and I definitely laughed my way through the floppy mess my bouquet became before I yanked all of the plants out and hacked more off the stems in order to get them to stand up better, but eventually we all made it out of there with heavy fancy centerpieces. When it comes down to it, though, it wasn't about the activity itself. The flower arranging class was merely a Thing To Do in order to spend time with Leslie, Steph, and Katherine, and we had an enjoyable evening together. While us girls were out on the town, Sam and Jeff stayed at our house having a friendly brotherly video game throwdown.

On Wednesday, Sam and Katherine came over to our house to hang out for a few hours. We gave Katherine a tour of our home (she's an interior designer so showing her our non-designed house could've been stressful, but again, she's so kind that it was totally fine) and then talked for a while before the kids begged to play Mario Kart with Uncle Sam. Then we talked while they played, haha. 

On Thanksgiving morning, we hosted our 15th Annual White Family Turkey Trot. As usual, it was an informal 5k with whichever friends felt like being active at 8am on a holiday. This year our neighbors the Andersons had a massive family gathering going on, so they came out en masse and more than doubled our turkey trot numbers. 25 people came! It was fun having more of a "starting line vibe" as we all lined up for the out and back run or walk. Jeff and I both ended up running a bit harder than we initially thought we would, and felt sore afterwards. It was the first run where I really noticed how much my amazing October fitness has faded. Ah well, I still managed a 23:31 5k. My hamstring held up for the turkey trot, but the quicker paced run definitely made it ache and set me back a few days in my hammy-rehabilitation. Worth it, in the name of tradition!

This year Rose, Amber, and I made paper finisher's medals for our turkey trot, since we knew we'd have a significantly larger field of runners than usual. We hand painted turkeys on the back of each medal, and strung them on blue yarn. It gave a certain flare to the event, haha.

Once we were all showered and cozy, we turned on A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Then we had Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving food for "lunch:" popcorn, pretzels, toast, and jelly beans. Once my bread came out of the oven around 12:30, we took the steaming loaves and drove to Grandview, singing "Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go" just like Charlie Brown and his friends sing at the end of the cartoon. I failed miserably at taking pictures while we were gathered with the White family. It was the first time Dan, Leslie, and all three of their kids had been together in two years! There were 8 adults and 7 kids--thank you for keeping the adults in the majority for the first time in 4 years, Katherine! Haha. 

We ate and talked and ate and talked, then took a break and talked on the couches before going back to the table and eating pie and talking more. I was feeling major social fatigue! It was good to be with family but whew it wore me right out. The kids played outside and inside and all around. After about four hours of family time, as the sun was setting, we said our goodbyes and drove home. 

I am so thankful for the four F's: family, faith, friends, and food. And the three H's: health, humor, and home. And so much more. Happy Thanksgiving!

This is us.

They peeled ten pounds of potatoes! I didn't peel a single potato this Thanksgiving, although I did peel several yams, which are also known as sweet potatoes... (although I think I've read that there is some subtle difference between yams and sweet potatoes...)

Amber helped zest an orange for our cranberry sauce.

Rose liked stirring the gravy and also taste testing the cranberry sauce--it needed way more sugar than advertised in the recipe. Note the rolls rising in the pantry and the other pan of rolls balanced atop the crock pot on the shelving unit.

The bustling kitchen! I got flour and something sticky all over my phone when I took this quick picture.

Jay's traditional turkey drumstick picture. Either the drumsticks are getting smaller, or Jay is getting bigger.

First Thanksgiving feast! Sunday, November 21st, and then every night all week through Saturday.

When she wasn't zesting oranges or rolling rolls, Amber made a design with all but a handful of the pattern blocks.

It was rather wet and gloomy all the way until Wednesday, when the fog lifted and we had mild, if not sunny, less-thick weather for Thanksgiving break.

Morning family selfie: I made everyone come attempt a picture for our Christmas cards. The results were mixed. Watch your mailbox for the official pic pick.

Flower arranging!

Katherine, Leslie, Shaina, and Steph, with our finished floral arrangements. (Alexandria was the name of the winery)

The two dozen homemade hand painted turkey trot medals! Each one unique.

Turkey Trot starting line picture! I balanced my phone on a piece of bark on top of a bush to take this picture.

Mid-race picture: Jeff and Rose were on their way back, I was still on my way out. I love out and back courses when there are friends involved, because everyone gets to pass each other and cheer each other on during the run.

Our neighbor Jory took this picture of Jeff.

Amber kept saying "my legs hurt!" It's been a while since she rode her bike.

Another Jory-special mid-race picture. Somehow he caught me floating in the air. My hurt hammy was complaining, so that was extra unlikely, haha.

After Jeff finished in first place, he went back and ran it in with me, then Jay, then lots of other people. He ran an extra 3 miles.

Jay caught Jeff's vision and went back to run it in with his next door neighbor buddy Ian.

The Anderson, White, and Kannely families with our medals. It's always an honor to be in a Jory selfie!

Adam and Eve: first man and first woman finishers. The only races we seem able to Adam and Eve these days are our own homegrown holiday races. Still fun! Also: Jeff's turkey hat is a beloved souvenir from a past turkey trot.

Charlie Brown Thanksgiving lunch.

The only picture I took of the Thanksgiving joy at the Whites' house: pie with cousins. Sam's head is in the bottom right hand corner. That's the only picture I got of him this whole week! I was not on my photo game at all.

Amber picked some lingering flowers from Grampa and Grama's garden.

Relaxing with cartoons on Thanksgiving night.