324: thankful.

I have a lot to be thankful for.

Holidays were we can fit so many of those things in one room are always sort of awesome.

thankful this is the ordinary

The family all got together for Thanksgiving Thursday.

A big meal, a few dozen cousins all together to hang out, lots of good visiting.

And the best part? There was nothing really out of the ordinary about this all. We do this pretty much every week. Except the food was a little more extensive and impressive– three tables full. Mom cooked all day. Everyone else brought multiple dishes. Even I cooked. The ordinary gathering of the family plus amazing amounts of food makes for a pretty good holiday. 

KaNana, Gwen, and Valerie. . . last touches on the meal.

Israel and Azia cooking away.

Israel made fried ice cream.

Everyone brought food.

And Grandma and Lettie brought their wheels.

There was a lot of eating.

Zoran cautiously considered trying a little sushi. . . maybe next time.

Grandma was brave enough to try it (though her tastes are only about as exotic as Zoran's!)

Ahni, Lettie, and Dylan filling up their plates

Keilana and Azia making decisions

There was some visiting.

Keira and Lettie

Azia, Maysa, and Keilana

Eldon, Jenna, & Christina

Kylie & Azia

Grandma Elda gets a hug from Maysa

girls, girls

 There was a  little wrestling

 and a little dress up.

And of course, some Black Friday shopping preparation.

Deva and Christina formulate a plan.

And near the end of the evening, some gadget lessons.

Iyezk teaches his papa a few things.

Deva watching Michael facetime with Israel.

the girls do a little photo taking

and the boys introduce Yaya to Angry Birds

and then back to the dessert table. . . so many options.

Actually, the whole evening was sort of like dessert.

Thanksgiving baking

The kids picked out their contributions to Thanksgiving dinner this afternoon and started baking.

I asked Lex what he wanted to make and he said cookies. I asked what kind of cookies and he said strawberry.

I had never even heard of strawberry cookies, but I googled it and apparently some other people in the world do make strawberry cookies. There are even some that look pretty good, but I just picked a really easy looking recipe with only about five ingredients (since Lex's independent baking skills are pretty good for a four-year-old, but not really at an independent gourmet level yet).  Unfortunately, when we got to the store they had no strawberry cake mixes and I forgot the cool whip which left us without most of the required ingredients.

So, we completely made up a strawberry cookie recipe that consisted of a white cake mix, package of cream cheese, an egg and a little butter (the headstart cook just told me a similar method yesterday for making her chocolate chip cookies) with a few teaspoons of strawberry extract and red food coloring. We soon had really bright, glowing pink strawberry-flavored and smelling cookie dough.

We baked them for ten minutes (after I convinced Lex it was alright and the oven wouldn't "cook all the pink out") and we now have not incredibly awesome (but at least still edible) strawberry-ish cookies.

Lex thinks they're perfect.

Thanksgiving 2010

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. " ~Thornton Wilder

So, I'm often not so good with the timely downloading of the pictures from the camera. I did take a few minutes to remember a few things I was thankful for on Thanksgiving, but it's taken me more than a week to sort through all the hundreds of photos I've taken and done nothing with in the last few weeks and find a few to remember our day.

Lex and Zoran hanging out, watching the Thanksgiving dad parade and frosting and eating sugar cookies.

I slept in Thanksgiving morning, but Azia and I had been talking about the parade the night before so she turned in on & watched it with the little boys, while they decorated (and ate) turkey sugar cookies for breakfast.

In the afternoon, we started cooking things to bring over to Yaya & Papa's for dinner.

Azia cutting up the bread for the cheesy, bread puffs she decided to make.

Israel made peanut butter cookies.

Zoran made both pumpkin cookies and chocolate covered brownie bites.

I didn't help Lex make anything because we ran out of time...or maybe energy. He sort of helped me make the cheesy-oniony-sour dough bread I made. (Which means he threw cheese all over it as I was stuffing it which was sort of helping.) Mostly he played with Zoran's cowboy and Indian toys. It was pretty funny to me that my boys spent Thanksgiving afternoon playing with little plastic cowboy & Indian toys. It was also a little strange that this was one of the 4-5 dollar toys you can buy at this little town on the Reservation and that it's what Zoran came home with.  Zoran asked me how you were supposed to play "Cowboys and Indians." I told him I didn't really know and then saw he'd lined them up all together, ready to fight some enemy that seems to be somewhere there in front of them all. That seems as good a way as any. 

Too much time inside listening to music and baking makes my boys a little crazy.

Mom sorting out some of the tons and tons of food...and maybe waiting for Todd to come take over the carving duties.

Azia sneaking a few olives while waiting for dinner.

Azia and Valerie.

Grandma Elda making the gravy.

Mom's rolls. Someday I should learn to make rolls or gravy...or something. I don't know how to make any traditional holiday foods. 

Bryce and Zoran discussing the merits and drawbacks of the cranberry log.  Serious stuff.

Aodhan really like both his dinner and getting his picture taken.

Everyone ready to start eating. We'd probably be ready a lot quicker if anyone but Grandma and Todd and Mom were doing anything!

KaNana serving up some corn.

and planning something else mischievous....

Lex was a little overwhelmed by all the chocolate appetizer choices. Where to begin?

After a whole day of hanging out with family, a little cooking and a lot of visiting we rounded it out with some big planning for shopping expeditions and a few feats of strength to round it all out. Not a bad day at all

After dinner, many of the group spent some time figuring out which of the best Black Friday deals they needed to hit.

Azia and Lettie seemed to have quite a lot of important ads to sort through. (Neither of them actually went shopping, but I guess it's fun to think about all the things it would be fun to buy.)

Israel tries to beat his yaya at arm wrestling. He wasn't successful, but he told me the other day if he started lifting after school again, he was pretty sure he could win a rematch. We'll see.

Bryce and Azia try to figure out the logistics of some leg wrestling.

I think they needed some easier contests after the leg and arm wrestling...they all started thumb wrestling.