Day of Thanks, 2024

Not since the historic year 2020 have we travelled to St. George to spend Thanksgiving with the Romney family. Two years ago when it was a Romney year for Thanksgiving we stayed up here by ourselves for a quiet meal with grandma and without Chase. Sheri, our superhero ER nurse, pretty much always seems to work on Thanksgiving, so to be able to spend the holiday with them we needed to head south.

I had fun planning the meal. I love planning meals the same way that Sheri loves planning vacations. 

May I share my menu? No one cares but too bad I'm the boss here.

Turkey - roasted legs in order to get awesome gravy, and brined tenderloins to grill in order to have truly moist yummy turkey. Of course gravy and mashed potatoes. Romney requested mac n cheese and I did my best but it could have used more cheese. The stuffing was just ok - I need to figure out how to make it better. It was a little dry. We also did stove top which you can't deny is just delicious. Rolls, naturally. And my favorite part (which I will get teased about) was the roasted vegetables - brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, carrots, with a cranberry glaze and goat cheese. I mean are you kidding me? So good. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself. First we drove to St. George on Wednesday night...and Troy and I were clearly coming down with colds. I shouldn't have been surprised. On airplanes in November? Colds were obviously going to happen. So actually neither of us felt very good. But that's ok. 

Thanksgiving calls for football - I was so glad Troy got the chance to throw a few passes with Peter out in the November desert air.

 

 

I of course spent the day cooking, and being sad that Sheri was away, although she was able to be with us in the morning for a while. We enjoyed eating our feast out of bowl made my our cousin Joe Bennion, treasures from our parent's home.

 

That evening two delightful things happened. First of all, I handed out the annual Christmas jammies. I found Christmas onesies from Fabletics on a screaming deal and went for it. I couldn't tell if they'd be a total hit or a total miss. Happily, my kids loved them! In fact, they've been wearing them a ton all month long. I treated myself to a pair and showed my love to my husband by NOT getting him a Christmas jumpsuit. Also, the first Christmas movie of the year happened. Die Hard, naturally. Remind me next year to only watch the edited version.

 

Not only did everyone enjoy the new pajamas, we all enjoyed time with the charming and snuggly Tucker.

Friday was a lovely lazy day with lots of homework time for me. I just sat in Peter's music room for hours and hours, getting my stupid assignments done while I kept my feet in the foot massage machine and sat under a lovely blanket. And listened to Christmas music. So very very pleasant. Except the dumb homework part. Meanwhile, the girls all headed to the mall for some crazy black Friday shopping and the boys were treated to a climbing trip by Sheri's dad Gordon.

That evening, Romney hosted a Dungeons and Dragons One-Shot campaign for everyone but Troy and me. And Sheri, who was at work again. I reveled in lounging lazily on the couch in my coughing glory while the kids got REALLY into the game, especially Sam. That was adorable. 

 

That evening the girls headed out for a late night showing of Wicked. I love that the girls are now able to take off by themselves and go do stuff. They loved the movie - Emma texted me in the middle of it to report to me that she was sobbing.

On Saturday we finally got a day with Sheri! I was not feeling great, but decided to go for the family hike together so I didn't miss time with her. It was a gorgeous day, and getting out and moving was helpful. Luckily the hike was followed up with a soak in a hot tub, equally good for my health.

Troy and Romney spent the evening driving to Overton, Nevada to look at a possible Landcruiser for us (a post for another time), while the rest of us conked out in various forms around the house. I think we also watched Christmas Vacation that night, although Sheri slipped away with her kids to go to the light walk on the hill - so funny, I didn't know they had left and was shocked to hear that they had left for an adventure. 

Delightful weekend. Boy had we been away from home a lot! And had many blessings to count.