Saturday, November 26, 2011

It's beginning to look a lot like...

...Christmas?
No. 
Thanksgiving. 

This is Jeff's idea of appropriate Thanksgiving table decor.


In the spirit of gratitude, I said Thank you, dear.


Our little gathering of six adults and six children was par for the course this year.
Chris smoked the turkey in his Traeger grill. It was delicious.


Bethany made craft packets for the kids. Mostly, they were too busy running around being rumbunctious to complete them, but Natalie and Josh enjoyed theirs.


Bethany is a hair away from being in her ninth month of pregnancy. 
Her fifth child.
She has no room in her stomach for food and no room in her lungs for air and can't bend down to tie her shoelaces, but she soldiers on.
I can't even remember how that felt, although I did it four times.
Funny how memory plays tricks on us.


Jon and his family were late.
As always.
Jon works the night shift and Thanksgiving is always difficult. He has to wake up and get ready for work, eat with us, then leave for work right after he eats.
We started without them because all the food was ready, but the Mitchell kids flocked to the kitchen when they arrived, knowing that Jenny was bringing her famous Jello.
Here is Jon, looking....sardonic?


I have scaled down my festive cooking since we mostly only have the offspring to holiday dinners any more.
I made mashed potatoes, corn, peas, gravy, rolls, and four kinds of pie.
The fact of the matter is, none of the four adult guests are big eaters and the six grandchildren hardly eat real food. And none of them like leftovers.
But they do love my rolls.
I think Bethany felt sorry for me when she eyeballed the amount of food left.
Don't worry Mom, she said, next year Sam and Charlie will be here and then there won't be so many leftovers.

When Jeff and I were alone again, I sighed and said to him Maybe I should just make rolls.


Let me know if you want to come over on Christmas Eve and make me happy by eating my feast.
Second thoughts, how about some of that turkey?

6 comments:

  1. What time do you want us there? Sounds wonderful! Maybe Jenny the pirate will join us as well. Of course - us girls would be busy talking, but I bet the men would be eating!

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  2. Oh Mari, wouldn't that be fun? I'll bet the men would have a blast too.

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  3. you KNOW your youngest son will love to take all your leftovers for you next year. :) he loves his mama's cookin!

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  4. My kids are the same. Weird diets and all they wanted were the rolls. Oh well, more for me!

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  5. I cooked all day and there were a few leftovers but they're gone now! We have only one picky eater: Joel, my son-in-law. Webers all eat big. Of the two little girls, Allissa is terrified of food but Melanie eats enough for both of them. I think she has a hollow leg.

    Merry Christmas!

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  6. I LOVE left over turkey dinner! We ate at Karen's and though she sent us home with some, it didn't last nearly long enough!

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