Underage Cutting, Overeating, and Other Thanksgiving Stories

For the seventh time in nine years, we hosted Thanksgiving at our house.  The prep began on Wednesday evening while we waited for our out-of-town guests to arrive.  I mixed together stuffing---Italian sausage, apples, dried fruit; it's the best--with Adah's help at the cutting board.  Check out how she wields that knife.  Or, rather, look out. 

 

Adah cut the dried fruit for me. She does have pretty good knife skills and this was the perfect job for her.

While Adah assisted me in the kitchen, the other 3 kids helped Damon in our guest room.  He added a rod for hanging clothes in the tall cupboard that we have out there, something that has been requested by other visitors.

Here's Maggie going at it with a hacksaw. There was a lot of underage cutting at our house that night. How do you like her headgear?  She's wearing a baseball helmet for some reason.  Gunnar must have put on his hardhat and Maggie decided she needed to join in the head protection.  Really, though, as to which came first . . . who knows? 

After our kiddos were fast asleep in bed, our friends Arthur and Kerri arrived from the Seattle area following an eight-hour drive!  Bless them. It's usually only a 4-hour drive, but holiday traffic left them inching along for the first few hours with their four children.

We spent last Thanksgiving with Arthur and Kerri at their home up north.  They had just moved from LA.  Damon and I went to college with Arthur and Kerri and hadn't seen them for years.  In fact, I think the last time we'd seen Arthur was at our wedding!  Even longer for Kerri.  Now that they live in the Northwest it has sure been fun to reconnect.

 

Arthur and Kerri have three boys and one baby girl.  Sometimes I still chuckle to think of the bachelor I knew in Boston as a dad.  He and Kerri are doing fine and have such sweet and fun boys.  My girls have continually declared that it feels like they're cousins.  All the kids hit it off immediately last November and again had a great time together this year.

Playing games on Kerri's iPod was a big hit, even if it was just watching someone else play.

While our turkey was cooking and the moms were busy in the kitchen, the kids and dads worked on making their own turkey . . . hats.  Just think, lots of construction paper, glue, and scissors and you can imagine how things looked around the table.

Adah models her hat.  You can't really see the feathers behind her, but there was a colorful tail on that bird.

 

Dinner was delicious.  I think we even managed to have all the parents sitting down at the same time, even if was only briefly. One of Damon's co-workers, Derrick, joined us also.  I'm sure he was a bit overwhelmed by the 8 kids, but he took it in stride, especially given that dinner was a bit later than I had originally intended. 

The day after Thanksgiving we drove up onto Mt. Hood and found a snow park.  We were able to blaze our own sledding trails and had a great time.  It was sunny and not too cold--a perfect day for playing in the snow.  Afterwards we had a late lunch at a diner in Government Camp before heading down the mountain and relaxing with a movie and some fruit, cheese, and popcorn for a light dinner.

Arthur, Kerri, and kids left Saturday morning since they had things to do back at home for the rest of the weekend. We sure enjoyed having them here and celebrating with us.  We're always thankful for good friends and especially for having a warm home and food to share with them.