THANKSGIVING

This year, we celebrated Thanksgiving at Scot's parents house with Aunt Marcia and her family & Grammy Margaret. It was a fabulous day with lots of laughs and delicious food.

I made our family go in coordinating outfits hoping to get a good family shot to use in a Christmas card, but unfortunately none of them passed the approval process. Better luck next time I guess. The lighting and weather wasn't cooperating, so we had to attempt to get a photo indoors, which got a little crazy. I have a feeling that someone will be less than happy that I have posted a non-approved photo - but it's for the sake of my journal, so maybe I'll be forgiven. For the record, none of us have mullets.

The food? Delicious. I didn't photograph all the food, I was too busy eating appetizers and veggies with dip to think of that - but I did manage to get pictures of the beautiful bird...and the chef.

Thank you to Grandpa Steve and Grandma Judie for hosting et. al.











In addition to the food, I made these delicious chocolate pies at Scot's request. They don't look perfect, but since I'm not much of a pie eater (I'm not really a fan of cooked fruit), I don't make pies all that often. That said, it's worth the documentation that I made the pies & they looked somewhat edible (thank you Linda Hancock for the fabulous recipe).


Another highlight? The Woolley family facial hair extravaganza.

Although it was simply a coincidence, I like to think of it as more than that. JD was clearly trying to show off with a full, but well trimmed lumberjack beard. Scot went with his standard goatee...but then there was Daniel. He took the early lead as a crowd favorite with, well - I'm not exactly sure how to classify it, but whatever it is I think he should be awarded a roll of Brawny at one of our next family gatherings. I'll work on that.


Ethan loved playing with his cousin, Rachel. She's always perfect company, and they dined together at a table for two by the window during dinner. (If you can call it "dinner" when you're only served a single olive. We must've been rationing food in hopes of having seconds & leftovers for the adults). Ahhh yes, the true spirit of Thanksgiving.

Towards the end of the evening, after Marcia and her kids left (all but JD), and Ethan had a good post-tryptophan snooze, he started "working". He had Grandma Judie up on the stairs making jackhammer sounds. He kept telling Grandma to put on her pretend protective earmuffs to protect her ears from the "GUGHHHH GUGHHHH GUGHHHH" jackhammer sounds. Let's just say his amazing imagination was put to good use today. He poured concrete, told people where to step to avoid getting concrete on their work boots, etc....the whole thing had me laughing so hard I was crying. He would change tools, and you'd know he made a change because the tools sound effects were different. I can't even describe how funny it was...in fact, I couldn't compose myself enough to grab the video camera until he had finished the work with Grandma and moved onto working with Grandpa. By that point, he became aware of the camera and wasn't quite as animated, but still adorable.

Brynn was amazing today, as always. Happy, full of laughs and smiles. We absolutely love this little girl. She's totally changed the dynamic in our family...we simply can't get enough of her.