Thanksgiving 2014

Thanksgiving - my favorite holiday!

This year I got to host again. I love hosting Thanksgiving; it feels like an honor.

We spent two days getting all the shopping lists and the shopping itself done. On the day of, everything was going great until I tried to slice my finger in half. Thankfully, my dear friend the surgical nurse was already in my kitchen. I got to spend the next two days with this fabulous accessory.

I look brave here but panic and tears were involved.

As a child I remember my nana chasing me out of her kitchen on family holidays. I never understood what her problem was, I just wanted a spoonful. Well, this year, I learned just how challenging it can be to cook while little beggers are hanging around.

Two of my beggers.

Thankfully somebody came up with the idea of entertaining the kids with costumes. Suddenly we had a SpiderMan and a Buzz Lightyear fighting off 'Bad Guys' in our living room.

PJ and the Watcher

Of course, they had support from Mommy's Little Turkey.

 

 

As well as another SpiderMan.

 Needless to say, we were totally Bad Guy free rather quickly.

Bad Guys beware!
 

And, yes, we permit jumping on our couch. Because we both loved it as children and childhood is too short for us to prioritize our dirty couch above that freedom of catching some air.

As more guests arrived, we got down to the eating. Though, it took quite a lot of convincing to get the kids to the table and wasn't always successful. We tried a kids table, which lasted about 7.5 minutes.

Professor Lambert Jr. was ready to play.

And Jelly Bean acted like a slinky:
up, down, up, down, repeat, repeat, repeat

While Bad Guys were eradicated from our living room again (who knew we had so many!), the adult shared in the traditional round of giving thanks and oh-so-scrumptious food. And wine. The wine was superb this year!

 

And another feast came to an end. Can't wait for next year!

A huge thanks to the Mr. who took all of these pictures without me thinking of it or realizing he was doing it until I downloaded them. Thank you, honey.


xo

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving, I may have mentioned a few times, is my super favorite holiday (best description of how I feel each year is in this blog entry). We were lucky enough to host Thanksgiving 2012 in our new home with a collection of friends: Professor's family; my fabulous stay-at-home mom's family; and a new friend and her son. All told, we were 12 people, 5 of them children.

Man, it was loud, active, and so much fun!

Two families work for German companies and took the day off; the other two work for the US Army and had the day off anyway. So, we actually got to celebrate ON Thanksgiving Day which somehow makes it feel even more 'real' for me. We need to take advantage of it while we can; once PJ starts school (and assuming we are still here), that most likely won't be as possible any more.

Anywho, preparations started the day before and PJ played a nice role. He wasn't a big fan of his apron but he did like tasting everything being prepared.

Then early in the morning on Thanksgiving Day, I got the fresh turkey ready. The year I went super simple: butter, salt, butter, garlic, and that's about it. With our new oven in our new kitchen, it was a breeze. In fact, the turkey was finished faster than we could have anticipated.

I'll be really humble here and admit it was the best turkey I have ever made. I make a mean turkey.

It still took too long for PJ, who demanded a snack before all of our friends arrived for the feast.

Finally the turkey was ready, our guests were around, the kids were jumping off the sofa, and Funny Man took up the honor of carving the bird.

Seriously - that is an awesome bird.

Funny Man may have been a little nervous.

Until he totally got into it. 

Then we were finally ready to feast. And feast we did! Each family brought one or two or even more side dishes. All of them were fabulous.

And then we played....

And then we ate some more.

And then played some more.

And then our day came to a slow end. As the following picture shows, I was relaxed, content, and already looking forward to next year.

I will be the first to admit that I'm not the best cook, but I truly enjoy preparing, sharing, and enjoying Thanksgiving dinner. Because I still "want PJ to grow up celebrating Thanksgiving, knowing that it is a special day for him as a key aspect of one of his two cultures. I want him to look forward to the special day just like I did and to trust that it will come, that family and friends will come, that thanks will be shared. I want him not to believe in a fairy tale about Indians but to learn to stop for a moment - hopefully more often than just once a year - to give thanks because he is indeed a very lucky boy. " - From Thanksgiving 2011


xo