Thanksgiving

     Thanksgiving simply came upon us this year.  I blinked--yesterday was my birthday and then it was Thanksgiving.  In fact, we were given the task of making two side dishes for Thanksgiving.  Right away, I knew one would be my gourmet version of green bean casserole.  I loved it and that was what I was going to make.  The other dish, I would search the internet and see if there was a dish that seemed dreamy and delicious! And then it was Wednesday night before Thanksgiving and I still hadn't done my shopping!!  Andy and I had a birthday party to go to from 6-8 pm.  I asked my friends at the party what yummy dishes they knew of and one suggested carrots to me.  At 8:30 I found myself on my cell phone asking Tiercy to google a carrot recipe for me.  Carrots, not our typical fair, but Tiercy found a very easy (now a requirement) recipe for carrots that included brussel sprouts.  Even better--I knew Andy would laugh and think I had done it on purpose (we have been having brussel sprout debates in my house.  I love them and want to serve them and Andy thinks...I don't know exactly, but he doesn't like 'em.)  And since I found myself at the store parking lot sans my shopping list for gourmet green bean casserole, I was now resigned that I would have to make the peasant version!
      Thanksgiving morning we slept in a little late, until about 8:00ish!  It seemed like a lazy morning, but then I knew it wasn't.  Brenna's birthday was on Thanksgiving and I wanted to see what she thought of her birthday treats!  I was lucky I decided to cuddle her then as that was the only time throughout the day that it would work for me to do so.  But she only cuddled for so long before she was up and off.  Happy Birthday Brenna! 
    So, I had a lazy morning while Andy and Noah went to their turkeybowl.  Tobin had spent the night out and was going to his own bowl with friends.  We watched Bre open her birthday gifts from us, I watched tv, got on facebook and looked through my recipes for Christmas.  And then I got started on the cooking.  Because I was doing the peasant version of green bean casserole and had the easiest carrot recipe ever, it was pretty easy cooking.  I say pretty easy, but becuase I was doing both at the same time, it got a little dicey for about 10 seconds as I had to stir the green beans with the cream of mushroom soup and had to take the carrots off of the burner so they didnt' get to mushy.  Success and we were ready to head out.
     We picked Tobin up from his turkey bowl and headed on down the road.  We arrived at Robin and Buff's a little late (ok, an hour late), but better late than never!  Buff's brother Wic and his family was there, Todd and his family was there and Mom and Al were there along with Blair.  We got the party started you see.  Buff had the lines for the first ever turkeybowl marked off and off the players went.  I think they had a great time.  Tobin played quarterback and threw many passes.  Noah had the catch of the game!  He jumped in the air and landed with a thud on the hard ground, but popped up with the ball in the air.
     Dinner was an affair.  We had the children eat first (always a good thing when the amount of children is equal to the number of adults) and then sent them on their merry way to who knows what activity.  And then the adults sat down to eat.  We had a great time and laughed a lot.  I remember Buff and Wic (who play off each other) have a conversation that at one point turned a little bawdry.  Some of the following comments shows the exchange:
Wic:  "I will keep you a-breast of the situation."
Buff:  "That was tit-alating "
Hahaha Buff and Wic.  You are very funny.  It was fun to see Buff laughing and with his family.  Buff's dad ate with us as well, but as the only sane one of us slipped out right after dinner to keep his sanity.  Laurie was a lot of fun to talk with and it was nice to see Todd and Michelle again.  We had a great time sitting and talking.  And then Brenna wanted to eat dessert, and by that she meant she wanted us to sing happy birthday and eat her cake!  So, away we sang with her big smiles.  The kids ate cake and the adults ate apple and pumpkin pie.  I also had brought a cheesecake for dessert as Brenna had requested to have that.  Oops.  She forgot about it and ate the chocolate cake instead.  Poor girl.  :)
    Finally, we were very tired from the day and needed to leave.  It was hard to do it in reverse as I didn't want to say goodbye.  Putting the stuff back into the car and packing it back up, wasn't nearly as fun as packing it had been.  I went in one last time and said, "Happy Thanksgiving" and off we went back the way we came.