November seemed to absolutely fly by. That party for Josh was during the first week of November, and before I even knew it we were getting ready for Thanksgiving. It was a lovely month filled with all sorts of good things. Some moments to remember -
* Romney took part in an after school theater program for a few weeks, and had a ball strutting her improv skills. The kids put together some short pieces and got to perform them with and for some other schools on the main stage at Salt Lake Community College. I wasn't able to attend due to a parent meeting at her school, but I hear she was very funny and showed off her awesome Scottish accent. They even got to attend a performance of Sweeny Todd at Pioneer Theater and she sat on the front row and loved it.
* Emma's activity group from church got together for a tea party and learned all about manners and how to properly lift their pinkies while drinking tea. They had such a great time. They had even, a few weeks prior, gone to the D.I. to pick out the fanciest dresses they could find.
* All five of us headed to Layton to visit our friend Mary and her kids in their new house and enjoy dinner and a Thanksgiving-themed Family Home Evening together. Worth the drive for sure. It was great to see the new house and how they were making it their own.
* Emma performed in her second studio recital - she played Gavotte by Gossec and did a great job. I think I get more nervous than she does.
I know, not too much about my oldest child. He was pretty busy, keeping up with his practices for Broestanas, the dance group he is in. He spent some time on his guitar and guitar lessons, and just chugging along with everything in general. He's hanging in there, and I'm hanging in there with him.
Romney had a tough experience - she auditioned for the school play which is a very big deal at her school. She really had high hopes and I confess, so did I. And not much came of it. She ended up with the part of being in a couple of crowd groups and that was it. She was so disappointed, heartbroken really. I was heartbroken for her! I am bringing it up because I want to pay her the compliment of remembering her grace and strength of letting it go and getting over it in just a couple of days. Much quicker than I did, for sure. She may or may not do the play, depending on if she decides to audition for some local theater productions. Anyway, I was really proud of her and I love her.
Holy cow, I probably should have put all that it its own post - I'm just now going to get to the subject of the post!
I was beyond ready for Thanksgiving by the time it finally came. I needed some holiday in my life. I was ready for Christmas music, ready for family, ready for good food, ready ready ready.
I was super happy that Emily and I were able to have our pie-making day again. I really made a lot of pies, much more than other years. Partly that was because we have some neighbors who are are going through some things and I knew they were hosting the meal so I offered to bring pies. Also I couldn't' decide on flavors! I had to have pumpkin and apple, and we also love key lime so much. Also I found a recipe for real chocolate mousse pie and I just had to do it. I did them all! Even multiples of some of them. I thought for sure we would have a ton of wasted pie - every year I feel like we throw away half of the pie. So many flavors people want just a sliver of and so we end up half eaten pies. I'm going to spoil the punchline and tell you that we did not throw away one single crumb of pie. It ALL got eaten! It did help that I wasn't too sure about the flavor of the key limes and so we decided to sample one on Thanksgiving morning. Between our house guests and ourselves, we downed that entire pie before lunchtime. Anyway, we had a great time on pie-making day. Romney and Emma just loved helping. The older they get the more helpful they become.
I am pretty impressed with ourselves and with Peter and family that all of us are okay cramming together in our tiny house. Well, I should say most of us. There is one person who gets a little grumpy. Bet you can't guess whoCHASE. We took mercy on him and once Thanksgiving was over, shipped him off to his cousin Noah's house for two days. I don't think he's ever had such a great Thanksgiving. I had to nab a picture of these cousins smushing into one twin bed. That worked for a couple of nights but since this visit was extra long, four nights as opposed to the usual two, we eventually got down another floor-bed and gave them a little more space.
Thanksgiving morning is a great time to visit the zoo. You may ask us, When is it not a good time for these families to visit the zoo? Never, I guess. I don't know why I even still post pictures - it's not like the visit itself is a big story. We just always love going because no matter the weather we get out of the house, we move our bodies, we see cool animals that we feel like we know. It's just a great place for us to get out and be together and enjoy time together. I don't see that stopping any time soon.
Just so you know, getting Troy on the carousel was some kind of Thanksgiving miracle. He usually takes a pass on that bit of fun.
It was nice on Thanksgiving morning to have time for the zoo. I really didn't do much cooking. I thought that I might be doing almost all of it since it was my side of the family's turn to gather. But my sister still owns her house by Liberty Park and she wanted to host one last Thanksgiving dinner there. Plus she has these three adult daughters, one with a foodie boyfriend, and they all wanted to be part of the cooking. That was so much fun. Also fun was that Cameron's parents joined us - they got all the adults playing a post-dinner game of Heads Up that had us all roaring. That was so funny.
The house was so snug and cute and we all had such a nice time being together. Cameron, my niece's boyfriend, made the turkey and it was absolutely fantastic. He studied the turkey techniques of chef Gordon Ramsay and now I shall too because it was a great turkey.
Crappy picture of a fun tradition - playing the card game "99" to decide who goes to do dishes. There's a loser about every five minutes, so you get a bit of a round-robin on dish doing.
What a wonderful day. The pies were great, all the food was fantastic, I love being with my family. I love the extended family members who love us as much as we love them. I love Thanksgiving.
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