Giving our thanks

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday this year.  It was the quietest one we've had in years.  Marianne came into town from Wichita to visit.  And it was just our little family and her for the big Turkey Day.  So we decided to just have a little turkey breast instead.  Andrew still brined it.  Yum.

A couple of weeks ago, I dropped a bottle of balsamic vinegar on my flat top stove.  Instead of the bottle of vinegar shattering, which I expected, the stove top cracked.  What???  I didn't even realize that could happen.  It was an expensive lesson to learn.  When we purchased a replacement, we discovered that it wouldn't be delivered until after Thanksgiving.  I was worried that our feast would be jeopardized.  But we pulled it off.  And it was delicious.

Thankfully, these two burners still worked.

Marianne braved the territory between Brandon and Whitney.

Most likely spot to get food on your clothes and/or body.

I guess with Caroline on the other side of the table,

all of us were fair game for spills or other eating mishaps.

But the meal actually went really smoothly.

I think the only pieces of food that went flying were the 

mini-marshmallows from the top of the yams.

They were hard to scoop.

Especially for kids were intentionally avoiding the yams.

We watched lots and lots of football.

And Andrew even got out with his friends and played.

It had been a long time.  Too long.

Look at those moves.

"Old Man Sweat"?

I think not.

(But he WAS feeling it in his hammies for several days afterward.)

We watched Tangled.

It was a great show.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

Marianne and I attended Clare's wedding on Saturday.

It was beautiful and we had a great time.

Our gratitude activity this year was a Thankful Wall.
We posted little slips of paper here.
Along with turkeys the girls made in school.

They included the major things:  the Gospel, family, the Savior, temple.
Some of my favorite random ones:  electricity, football, playdough, money, hair spray, babysitters, piano lessons, and parallelograms.

It was a fabulous holiday filled with friends, family, fun, and food. 
And I only gained one pound.