Thanksgiving: Part 1

Our Thanksgiving was perfect! There really is no other word to describe it. We had a total of 17 people (including us) stay at our house with only one bathroom, that's right, ONE. I wasn't sure how it was all going to work with so many people, and that our plumbing would hold out for the duration of the week, but we couldn't have been more pleased with how things turned out. We were also really excited to use our kitchen table to its full potential. We bought our table from an Amish carpenter before we left Pennsylvania and when it is open as big as it can get it fits 10 people around it. Probably not that exciting for you, but it sure was for us!

We spent a couple of our days down in the city. The first time down, we did a little sight seeing. We went to Millennium Park and saw the Cloud Gate sculpture, which Brandon affectionately calls the big jelly bean. The kids and I had a great time ice skating on the outside rink near the park. We got some hot chocolate to warm up and then walked by the animated holiday windows at Macy's (which were very cool). Then we headed over to the Lego Store where we saw a gigantic Darth Vader and R2D2 made out of legos. We walked along Michigan Avenue and saw some beautiful buildings, had a little dinner and then called it a day. Our second trip down, we saw the jelly bean again, and also went to The American Girl store where we all ooh'd and ahhh'd at all there was to see! We also went to the 94th floor of the John Hancock Building to see the city from a bird's eye view and had a fun audio tour, complete with our own touch screen games! We were also able to sneak a train ride or two in which thrilled some of our younger crowd.

When we weren't down in the city, we were playing together, shopping, had a backyard soccer game, went to the park, and played video games to our hearts content (at least the kids content!). We were so happy that everyone was here and that we had such a good time!

Brandon and I having fun on the ice rink.

Our family portrait next to the jelly bean.

Kelsie, Kristen, and The Bean.

Darth Vader and Darth Brandon

The Macy's windows are so cool!

This is what the little guys looked like while we were walking around the city.

Most of us on top of the John Hancock Building.
A view from the ground.

I want to figure out how to get my face on one of these!

Thanksgiving: Part 2

We started Thanksgiving morning with our annual Turkey Trot. We didn't feel like paying $20 per person to run in a sponsored race, so instead, made our own. We made our own t-shirts, a la fabric markers, mapped out a 1-mile fun run around our neighborhood and each received a homemade medal. Danelle made her infamous cinnamon rolls for breakfast after the run and we all warmed up again with some steamin' hot chocolate. The t-shirts were a huge hit with the kids and they were all so proud of them that they wore them the rest of the day!

After our fun run, we got down and dirty with the turkey and started all the preparations for the big meal. All of the food was delicious it was hard to not stop eating! I guess that's what so fun about Thanksgiving, right?! My sister-in-law, Karen, made the best sweet potatoes I have EVER had along with homemade stuffing and cranberry sauce. Danelle made her yummy rolls and mandarin salad, and I threw in the mashed potatoes, turkey, and gravy. Karen and Danelle also made some award-winning pies. We were all so happy at the end of the day! Food will do that to you....among other things. ; )

We did a little shopping on Black Friday, but not a whole lot. Wally took everyone over to Northwestern and gave them a tour of the lab and campus. While there, they shot this fun little video of Wally and his brother and sister dancing (I wasn't there so I'm not exactly sure why they were dancing):

We had to say good-bye to everyone that afternoon and we all shed a few tears. We had so much fun together and the week went by way too fast. We really are thankful for all of our blessings, especially as we are reminded of them more frequently this time of year.

Brandon is working really hard on his fun run shirt.

Our cute pint-sized buddies.

Those cinnamon rolls were so yummy!

The under-10 trio.

Caleb is very proud of his medal.

The whole group, just before the race.

And just after.

Gobble, gobble

There's nothing like a great turkey, with all the trimmings, and fun people to celebrate with. My sister's family came down from Seattle to be with us which was especially exciting for me since I haven't spent Thanksgiving with anyone in my family for about 6 years. Wally's sister and her family also came down from Idaho to play games with us the night before Thanksgiving. We had lot of fun and decided to bake the pies Kelsie helped me make for everyone that night. We all enjoyed some good homemade apple, pumpkin, and chocolate velvet pies and played an exciting game of Killer Bunnies.

We started our holiday morning participating in our family's 3rd annual Turkey Trot 1-mile fun run. We were lucky enough to talk Ben and Whitney into running with us. As we all got ready to go, Brandon insisted on wearing his boots during the run and was a little put out when we told him there was no room in the stroller for him. It was a cold morning, but once the race started we were able to stay warm. I pushed Caleb and my niece, Lydia, in the double jogger while Kelsie ran with me and Brandon ran (more like walked) with Wally. Kelsie and I finished in14:49 while Brandon and Wally crossed the finish line at 24:41. We were proud of our kids for running and finishing the race. Kelsie mostly enjoyed the race and Brandon informed us that he does not want to do that again, ever (maybe the boots had something to do with it?). We'll see how he feels about it next year.

Upon returning home from the big race, the major cooking operations began. We marinated our turkey overnight in a salt-water solution (1 c salt and 1/2 c brown sugar per 1 gallon of water) and then stuffed it with fruit (apples, oranges, pears, and limes), an onion, and some garlic. We then seared it for half an hour in a 550-degree oven with a homemade tin-foil hat, and then let it cook at 350 for the next 3 hours. In the meantime we set to work mashing potatoes, making candied yams, roasting green beans, cooking the rolls and stuffing, and finishing off with a nice crisp mandarin salad. (Nothing says Thanksgiving like a mandarin salad.) When everything was ready, we all sat down and enjoyed the ever popular Thanksgiving dinner. All the food turned out great, especially the turkey, if I do say so myself. We went around the table and said what we were thankful for, stuffed our faces and our bellies, and then retired to the couch for a long winter's....oh wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.

The rest of our weekend was pretty quiet. Whitney and I braved "black friday" shopping and were able to get a couple good deals. Here's a tip: I will forever and ever shop at Target if I ever shop on black friday again. They had plenty of their great deals there when we went at 9 a.m. which proves that you DO NOT need to get up at insane hours of the morning to get the deal. I was so happy about that, I even let one of those nice people in a red shirt know. Also, there was NO LINE when we went to the check out. We just walked up and paid and walked out. It can't get any better than that.

OK, 1 more tip: check online. We found some some deals online that were just as good as going to the store, except we didn't have to get up early or wait in line for 45 minutes.

Wally and Ben took Kelsie and Brandon out shooting rockets (one apparently blew up which made the excursion that much more exciting) and we enjoyed kicking off the holiday season with music and movies.


We also made this cool "Thanksgiving Garland" out of tissue paper and glue. I got the idea from a friend's friend's blog and thought we would try it out. (It's a lot like making a pinata. Kendra, this should make you proud.) It was super fun to make and maybe next year we'll add what we're thankful for around it.