Happy Thanksgiving!

Since it is an "away" thanksgiving for our kids we had our annual thanksgiving dinner on Saturday the 20th. I don't know what it is about thanksgiving, but I love every bit of it. I love the shopping for the food, cleaning the house, baking, cooking, setting the tables, the smell of turkey baking, just everything! We had to make a couple of adjustments on the table arranging. Emmie and Logan got to eat on the big table as there wasn't enough room on the two little tables. They thought that was pretty cool. Here is a picture of one of the kids' tables. Notice the little name plates. Kimmy made those a few years ago. They are little pumpkins with wire to hold the name. Cute right? We eat on paper plates (we only eat on my nice china on Christmas Eve), as it is easier to clean up because we have some activities after we eat. I will let you in on a little secret....whoever invented paper plates, cups, utensils, I am going to give a BIG kiss in the next life!This is sure a motely crew (except for the girls). I had to talk my head off to get a picture of the whole family. I mean it is only once a year. I told them to just buck up and deal with it!

After dinner we always put together gingerbread houses. Here is Jarom and Scott holding their babies while their wives and kids make them in the kitchen. They are watching football, trying to teach their daughters the ins and outs of the game.....notice the girls are sound asleep, hee, hee.

Here is Brett and Amanda trying to figure out how to put together their gingerbread tree.

Adrien and the girls--

Amie and the boys. I don't know where Lexie was--

Poor Dax and East. Their house just couldn't stand up. Lacee just stepped away for a second and the house came tumbling down...was it built on sand, I wonder? Actually, the gingerbread houses were a bust this year. There was only one that stayed up. Next year we are going to be armed with a GLUE gun!

Now for the exciting pie contest. We had 10 (TEN) entries this year. The first year I think we only had 4. This is such a huge competition. It starts the first of October with smack talk over e-mail..."I found the best pie"..."Yours will taste like dirt compared to mine" etc. There is a lot of time and money (Nick and his $40.00) put into these pies. I tell you people this is a HUGE competition. Anyway, Emmie, Allie and Kate made a pie this year. It was a smore pie. Crust was graham cracker filling was chocolate and it was topped with melted marshmellows. Logan made a Lemon Merange (Amie helped) and Landon made a banana cream pie. Brett made a banana cream pie, Jarom made a delicious apple carmel coconut pie, Scott made a cream pie (sorry Scott I can't remember what kind of cream), Kim made a chocolate cream pie, Brion made a really good pie (sorry, Bri I can't remember what it was, hee, hee) and Nick's was....are you ready...it is called "Triple Threat Coconut Cream Pie". I handed out pieces of paper and everyone voted for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd favorite taste and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for presentation. Then I was chosen to add all the points up. The only reason I was choosen (Amanda helped too) was because nobody trusted anybody else to count! This is the point system. 3 points for 1st, 2 points for 2nd and 1 point for 3rd. Here are some pictures:

The cutting was tricky. We just ended up spooning some onto our plates. When we were tasting them, there were a few remarks: "Well, that one didn't taste very good" and little Landon said, "Boy after that pie, I'm gonna need a drink of water!" Both of these statements were out of the mouth of babes, so you know it was the truth! Actually, I didn't think there was a bum in the lot, they all tasted good to me.

And the winner of the best tasting pie----

Brion found this bakers hat and had it engraved with this:

He bought another bakers hat and had the winner as presentation, which was Kim. Her pie beat every other pie on presentation hands down! She got 31 points! Anyway, Kim, Spencer and Clay had to go home right after dinner because Spencer's sister and her family were coming up from Cali. Afterwards we played the Battle of the Sexes games (the girls won, of course) and then we looked out the window and saw snow flying. The kids and the guys hurried out and made this snowman before they left.

It was a fantastic thanksgiving. It couldn't have been better. Everyone was there including my mom, which makes Nick and I feel so grateful. We love to be together. I think heaven is a little bit like our day on Saturday. May all of you have a wonderful thanksgiving this year and be sure and thank the Lord for His bountiful blessings!