Happy Birthgiving!

Every seven years Nate's birthday falls on Thanksgiving.  When this happens we have a double celebration.  

It took awhile for us to decided what we were going to do for Thanksgiving.  We weren't sure if we were going to have anyone over.  If we weren't I wasn't about to do any cooking because not enough members of my family like traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  We finally decided to invite family over and so the preparations began on Wednesday.  

Jordyn loves to help cook and was so excited that I was in the mood to be patient and let her help.  She was fully committed to helping me even though the smell of peaches was making her want to gag. She found a solution and soldiered on.  We made 2 pies, 2 pans of monkey bread - which makes me think of Nate's Mom, bread cubes and jello pretzel salad -which always makes me think of my SIL Angie.  

We took an afternoon break from baking to go to the movies with cousins.  We went to see Frozen and everyone really liked it.  We brought the cousins home and they played with kitties while I finished baking.  They also became obsessed with Studio C over the holiday.  

Thursday morning Nate went coyote hunting and then tracked me down on my walk so he could walk with me.  It was hard to find him….because of the camo…:0)

When we got back the kids gave Dad his B-day card…which produced a little tear…and all his gifts.  He is well loved in this house.  

There wasn't too much left to cook on Thursday, which makes it a much more pleasant experience for myself.  There is no picture of Tom, but he turned out really well and my fool proof gravy recipe turned out amazing as usual, thanks to my SIL Steph.  We had to have our traditional stuffing -thanks to my SIL Carol- and some roasted veggies and I threw in some home made mac and cheese for the littles this year.  BTW my cook top is still alive and kicking.  I'm just down 1 burner.

The cousins had a blast playing with each other like they usually do.  It has been a year of miracles regarding family relationships so this Thanksgiving we were especially grateful and happy to be together.  

We were trying all night to get someone to use this toilet spray.  I won't say who finally did, but it was hilarious….and btw, it totally works!  Danica was kind enough to be the model for it.  We take care of our guest here.  When you are consuming large amounts of food, you're bound to have to go, so we've gotcha covered!  We also entertained ourselves by watching the commercial for the product.  

There was game playing- where things got ugly a few times- but it was highly entertaining.  We had several quotable's of the night that I kept writing down so that I wouldn't forget….none of which would make much sense here.  We looked through the ads and found nothing worth braving the crowds for.  The kittens were loved to death and we just hung out.  The siblings even got to talk to their Mom and Dad while sitting in the same room next to each other….Not sure why we didn't whip out the face time, but oh well….I guess we were going old school.  

So there you have it.  Our Birthday / Thanksgiving bonanza…or as I'm referring to it, Birthgiving…which I'll admit, sounds a bit misleading.