Thanksgiving At Our House

I don't invite people over very often. I'm not the greatest cook, hostess, housekeeper or interior decorator and there are always a long list of things that need to be cleaned, organized or repaired. Plus, there are lots of things I'd rather do. (Like read a book.) :-)

But this year we had Thanksgiving at our house.

I started to stress out about it because of my limitations--some of which I listed above--but I decided I couldn't be anybody but myself. In the picture below you can see my "wall of vulnerability" because all the picture frames are empty. Sometimes it takes me a long time to decide what I want. :-)

We had 27 people--a few from Bob's family, my mom and a lovely young couple who couldn't travel to their families' homes in Colorado. I am so blessed to be surrounded by so many amazing people!

We moved some furniture and were able to fit in three tables.

Duff found a bunch of quotes on gratitude and he scattered them around the tables.

When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?
--G. K. Chesterton

Everyone wrote down some of the things they were grateful for and Duff read them out loud before we had pie. The one below is Kevin's:

Kevin is Duff's youngest brother and he has Down Syndrome. He wouldn't let my mom sit next to him and so Ryan got after him ("That's my grandma, Uncle Kevin!"), which he must've taken to heart because he looked at my mom apologetically when Duff read "learn to be nice" from his card.

The Food
I was having daily headaches so Mom rescued me and cooked the turkey and made the gravy. I made The Pioneer Woman's Perfect Mashed Potatoes recipe, and though they weren't perfect, they were the best I've ever made. I also made the stuffing, cranberry sauce and chocolate pie, which is a favorite for some of my kids.

All the food was great. Debbie brought two kinds of rolls--the "rolls that go like this" (insert hand motion) (family recipe) and amazing crescent rolls (We still need that recipe, Debbie.)--and yummy pies, even though she had just broken her leg. Alicia made some pies. Suzanne brought strawberry banana jello salad (a family recipe), a huge veggie tray, and more pies. Mandi brought a non-dairy pumpkin dessert, cornbread and gluten-free gravy, which came in handy because our guests from Colorado are gluten-free. Reed & Britney brought sweet potatoes and Matthew & Seantay brought ice cream. I love not having to make everything. However, we had far too many pies!

This is a common scene after dinner at our house. It's fun to see how much our kids like to play games together.

I have terrible lighting in my house (and could definitely improve my photography skills), but here is Grandma and Grandpa Wilson with Mandi and Olivia.

Micaela and Robbie with my mom. Robbie is wearing his Thanksgiving hat that he made in school.

Luke wanted to jump on the trampoline so Grandpa Duff went outside with him. That Luke is such a character.

I am thankful for so many things, but the thing I put on my card is modern medicine, even chemotherapy. As horrible as chemotherapy is, it has saved Reed's and Duff's life, and I am so grateful for more time with them.

"We're All Together Again, We're Here, We're Here"

The Wilsons have been incredibly supportive of our family and it has been a great strength to us. Here is the entire (original) Wilson family after Ben reported on his mission.

Ben with some of his good friends. Some of them slept in and didn't make it.

The five brothers. It's fun to see how much they enjoy each other.

The beautiful Wilson girls. I feel so blessed to have each one of them in my life.

Micaela with her cousins Kylie, Amanda and Allison.











When Jen married my nephew, Thayne, I was surprised to see one of my favorite friends from junior high at the wedding dinner. I found out that Jen is her niece so we are now related by marriage. :-)
And just like her aunt, Jen is one of my favorite people. Here she is with her brand new baby, Will.

Micaela caught Cassidy in deep thought.

Cassidy's not the only granddaughter anymore.

Olivia

It was pretty tricky to get a good photo of the grandkids.

 
These kids don't get to see each other very often, but they love it when they do.

Ben did a great job sharing stories from his mission to Mexico City. I knew that I would learn a lot of surprising and interesting things when he got home because he wasn't a great letter writer. One thing I learned was that he was in danger. He witnessed some robberies and got very good at avoiding dangerous people and places.

It's wonderful to have him home again. We're all together again.!