Happy Thanksgiving

We were privileged to host "Friendsgiving" (as coined by Jennifer) again this year.  I am all about traditions and once you come to my house for Thanksgiving, we expect you to come again! This year we had our biggest year yet with 36 persons.  We had us (6), Rick & Ana (2), Ron & Elaine (2), Trish & Jack (Ron's sister and brother-in-law (2)), Bergherms (5), Isidros (5), Lola & Lala (2), Mike, Gen, and Preston Isidro (3), Tad & two kids (Tangie's brother (3)), Zbaraschuks (5), Amy's mom, Bobbie (1). There are a lot of friends but it is also a family affair as well.

As tradition dictates, the men and also Elaine this year, went off golfing first thing in the morning. They had a group of 11 as someone backed out at the last second.  They were playing in teams of two and poor Karis got the short straw and had to play for himself and his non-existent partner.  So twice the golf.  But it seemed to work as he had the best score of the day.  They had a lot of fun but then William Cochran, on the way home, rear ended someone who was stopping to do an illegal u-turn - - that took a little joy out of things but thankfully everyone was okay.

Meanwhile, back at the homestead, we enjoyed a pumpkin pancake and cinnamon roll breakfast while the kids watched the parade.  I decided to shake things up a little bit and move our eating time from about 5:30 to 2:30.  Each year I am so pooped out after the meal and cleanup that I can't keep my eyes open to look at the ads and plan my black Friday outing.  This meant less time to get things ready but I stayed up Wednesday evening and prepared all my food ahead of time so that it could just be put in the oven. I made alpine chicken, mac & cheese (a new recipe), spiced carrots, and a new Brussels sprouts recipe.  The meal prep then went very well on Thursday morning with really only the mashed potatoes needing to be made from scratch.

The girls were so cute leading up to Thanksgiving.  They kept pestering me to help plan the games. They just love Thanksgiving and especially the games. Games they shall have!  We really saved them for after the meal but they played football, Four Corners, sack races, and then answered "Would You Rather" questions.  It's funny how that isn't a game but rather just questions but they absolutely love it.  As for playing football, I don't know what it is but my kids are now obsessed with it. It's probably partly because they have been watching all the Patriots game this year too.  Either way, they've been playing football every day with just the four of them but they keep lamenting, "If only Blake and Zachary and Evan and Kaleb and Braelyn were here so we could have a big football game."

Glad to have a hammock back in working order.  The old one got all moldy.  It was a gorgeous day to be outside.

Addison and Colby spent their time in the sandbox rather than playing games.

Adults took a turn playing Four Corners.

Watching the kids play.

"Would You Rather?"

Watching a movie at the end of the day.

The meal went off without a hitch and really, everything was perfect.  We have such a great group of friends and of course, beloved family.  There is SO much to be thankful for and sometimes I just sit back in awe of it all.  We are truly blessed. After eating and games, there was football to be watched and chitchatting and ad studying. The ladies were so kind and did a terrific job of helping to clean up. Did I mention we have great friends?

Desserts.  Courtesy of Jennifer.

Waiting for their food.  Which they barely ate.

No problem eating pie and ice cream though!

I was still pretty tired when I fell into bed Thursday night but it was okay because I really didn't have many places planned for Friday morning.  There just wasn't a whole lot we needed and frankly, since we are flying up for Christmas this year, it's not like I'm going to be buying other people gifts to try and transport up there.  My big places to hit were the kids' and women's consignment stores.  I had $354 from the consignment sale burning a hole in my pocket!  Duncan was very kind to take the kids for most of the day (ended up at the Science Center for most of it).  I left about 7:35 (the stores opened at 8:00) only to discover Duncan had left his wallet in the car.  I also then panicked that I had left the key to the car in the house.  I didn't have my purse with me and I didn't see the key sitting where it usually does (it doesn't go in the ignition).  I had started the car and then ran back in to get something and I was worried I had set it down.  That wouldn't have been good.  I had to do a u-turn at 7:53 while muttering under my breath but alas, discovered the key in my back pocket.  I u-turned back around and figured Duncan would have to just get his wallet on the way to where he was going. Whew! The stores was having a 40% off sale from 8:00 to 10:00.  You only had to be in the store by 10:00 to get the deal but then the women's store was also having 30% off during those same hours so I had to coordinate it all and time was precious. Fortunately, it all worked out.

I was pretty done after that but did manage to stop at Lowe's afterwards for batteries. Then, since Duncan still had the kids, I stopped at Goodwill and ended up being there for a good while but found a lot of good stuff.  It was a great day as far as deals but I was happy to be home on Friday night to just relax and visit with Ricky and Ana.

Science Center

After a nice Sabbath, the Saturday evening festivity was a surprise party for Ashley for her 40th birthday.  This wasn't a convenient weekend to find a babysitter so in the end, Jennifer and I left the dads with the kids and just the two of us went together.  Frankly, I think it probably worked out best that way anyway!  Although I will have to say that this was the third Saturday night in a row that I left Duncan with the kids and he jokingly gave me a hard time about it.  I did feel bad!  Anywho, the party was at the Whitakers house and I was curious how David was going to pull off a surprise.  They were gone over a friend's house but Ashley's mom and sister and others had been scurrying around setting everything up at the house.  They have a lot of parking around the back of the house so we all hid our cars back there.  About thirty minutes later, they arrived with Greg and Shelley (Camille's sister) who were in town for Thanksgiving.  And yes, we pulled off the surprise although it was nearly ruined.  They were having it catered by Buca de Beppo and wouldn't you know but right as David pulls into the driveway, a guy is walking in the driveway and says to Ashley "Is this 113?  I'm looking for 113." David butts in and says, "I'll handle this." He goes off with the guy who then leaves and tells Ashley "He was trying to scam us but I got rid of him." Ashely thought it was very odd but didn't have much time to ponder it before coming inside.  It turns out it was the caterer trying to deliver the food!  Fortunately he did come back and we were able to enjoy the delicious meal.

Sabbath afternoon Aunt Wanda, Aunt Mary, and cousin Debbie came to visit.

The birthday girl and her family.

Meanwhile, Duncan took the kids to "Light up Mt. Dora" and met up with a bunch of other friends.  I had sent the kids supper in their lunchboxes since they left home at about 5:00 pm.  They had a great time and stopped for a treat at McDonald's afterwards.

Light up Mt. Dora.  Duncan was really impressed with it.  He said there must have been 10k people there.

Sunday morning Aunt Toni and Uncle Terry arrived in town via Southwest Airlines. Uncle Terry's mom, Nanny, moved up north into an assisted living facility (which she loves) and they sold her house in Avon Park in about three days.  They had to come down and get all her personal affects.  I picked them up about 9:00 and then we met Duncan and the kids near Ron and Elaine's house to get our Christmas tree.  I'm really not happy with the selection (it's too skinny - - I like them full) but I don't feel like making a big deal about it or spending the money for a better one when we'll only be looking at it for about two weeks.  Afterwards, we went to Ron and Elaine's for a leisurely breakfast courtesy of Elaine.  It seemed especially nice enjoying the meal and chitchat on the patio.  The warmer weather IS nice for something.

Basically half of these ornaments are no longer on the tree since the boys take them off to play with them.

In the afternoon I took the rest of the clothes I didn't sell at the consignment sale to Once Upon a Child to see if they would buy some of them.  Toni and Terry went with us so they could pick up their moving truck (they wanted a van but it was cheaper to get a big truck - - go figure).  I also had the kids with me and as we go to get out at the store, Aubree says "I have no shoes." Yup.  Sure enough, she hadn't put any shoes on. Ugh!!  I suppose it was good we were at a store where I could buy some but it made me sick to pay full price when two days earlier they would have been 40% off. I probably would have just left her barefoot but we also had to walk over to the women's store for me to return some stuff.

Sunday night was the big game.  The 10-0 Patriots versus the 8-2 Broncos in Denver. We were thrilled that Toni and Terry had spent the whole day with us and were going to sleepover so they could watch the game with us too.  Always fun to watch with them. Because the team is so depleted with injuries, I had already thought the Patriots had a good chance of losing.  So ultimately, the fact that they lost in overtime didn't come as a big shock.  However, seeing Gronk go down with an injury in the fourth quarter, writhing dramatically in pain, did.  I honestly couldn't have cared less how the game ended after that.  I figured the season was done and I'm sure many a Pats fan went to bed with a sense of doom as to what would be announced the next morning.  Somehow, low and behold, it turns out the Gronk did not suffer a season ending injury so there is still hope. Without him, the season is toast.  As I said, the kids have been watching a lot of football this year, and Calleigh particularly has been a lot into it (I'm going to try and make her my mini-me!).  I made the other kids go to bed at halftime but Calleigh was so disappointed that I let her stay up.  At one point as we talked about all the injuries, she says "What if Gronk got hurt? I hope he isn't next!" And then, right as Calleigh's eyes were fluttering closed, Gronk went down and she missed it.  I'm glad things weren't so ominous the next day since she loves him.  But who doesn't?!!

Right before the game was start, at 8:30 pm mind you, I come upstairs to find that Aubree and Brady had set up a giant yard sale in the playroom complete with price tags. Just what you want to see before bedtime.

If there is anyone who loves Christmas more than my dad and I, I would like to meet them.  I love to soak it in.  I have the Christmas music on all day and I want to do every Christmas event that goes on. To that end, Tuesday night we went to Chick-fil-A where Mr. Richard was singing Christmas songs.  It was kids' night and I thought it was two free kids meals per adult.  Turns out it is only one so I'm not sure we'll be doing that again soon but we did enjoy the music and the kids had such fun playing in the playground although Aubree had deemed it a "baby playground" when we first pulled up (this was a different location than what we've gone to in the past).


Last night I read on Facebook that at Winter Garden Village they would be having Christmas singing and goodie bags for the kids at 7:00.  Off we went!  It turns out it was a church group putting on a little outreach event.  They had a screen set up with the words to the songs and a sound system so it was well put together but Calleigh whispered to me "Why is everyone old here?" It did seem like everyone there was over the age of about 65 but that isn't very old, right?!!  At any rate, the kids were happy with their candy goodie bags and once the music started, I was very happy to be there, especially when I looked over and saw the girls singing their hearts out to "Silent Night", "O Come All Ye Faithful", etc.  Brady was mute as expected but I soon found out why. He also whispered to me..."I'm not a good singer." So that answered that.



I haven't been remembered too much of what the kids have been saying lately but I do remember this one and I'll put it under the title of "Where Did I Go Wrong?"

Me:"Aubree, please go upstairs and get dressed and make sure to put on new underwear."
Aubree:"But M-o-o-m-m, I just put these on two or three days ago."

I really hope that was all a joke.

Oh, and when does the payoff come with the having a boy compared to a girl? Because right now the girl is beating the boy by a long shot just purely based on pee.  I went into the guest bathroom the other day and found that the toilet COVER - - not just the seat - - was down and there was pee all over it.  As if the boy in question thought he could somehow get the pee into the toilet while the cover was down. The pee miraculously was able to also go over the side of the tub and pool nicely in there where someone may want to come and take a relaxing bath.  It is quite unbelievable how much pee can come out of one tiny 4-year old little boy.  And to think that I have another one waiting in the wings to add to this disaster. Diapers have never sounded so good.  I may have to start putting toilet paper on the seat in my own home - -  if I can make it that far - - because usually my feet will land in a yellow pool before I even reach the commode and I'll turn on my heels and think "You know, I'll just hold it."

Here are some things we've been up to in school:

To finish up our study of Canada, we made Canadian Baked Blueberry Dessert.

After Canada, it was on to Brazil.

"Flying" to Brazil.  Enjoying their in-flight drinks and snacks.

Love to see my girls working hard.

This checklist system has been working really well for Calleigh.  As she tells me, very seriously, "I just love to check things off on my list.  It just feels so good to fill it up with checks."

A few more pictures to close.

London celebrating her upcoming first birthday in Sabbath School.

Libby the dog.

Just chillin', eating a slice of cantaloupe in Mom and Dad's bathroom.

"Look Mom! Earrings!!"

Dressed up in Calleigh's shirt wearing Addison's bow we found.

Yup, still been warm enough to play in the water outside.

Found the kids asleep like this the other night.  Aubree says she doesn't remember him coming into their bed so I'm pretty sure both girls were asleep when he decided to come in and sleep with them.

Have a great rest of your week.