Thanksgiving 2012

This Thanksgiving was one of the most fun I've ever had.  We held it at our house, and along with my parents and local sister's family, my sister Brooke and her family also came to visit.  The sister missionaries and another from our family came, too, so we had a full house!  I think part of the reason that it was more fun this year is because I got an earlier start on cooking, cleaning and otherwise preparing, plus Curtis and the kids did a great job of helping.  I was also really happy about how the dining room turned out.  Even though it's STILL not finished, I decided to do everything in there that I could by myself and get it looking the best it could.  I FINALLY sewed my curtain panels, and that took me nearly a day.  We hung up our stained glass windows, artwork, decorative plates and a mirror (all of which we've had, minus the plates, for years as we've been waiting to have our kitchen and dining room done), and I also kicked my butt into gear and made myself finally get the dining room table stained and finished.  My Dad and I built it about 18 months ago, but it had sat unfinished in our dining room all this time.  I sanded it down, "smoked it," using Rubio smoke treatment, and then sealed it with some Rubio Monocoat clear oil.  I love how it turned out.

Speaking of tables, we had THREE set up for Thanksgiving.  In addition to the dining room, we had one in the kitchen for the little kids, and one in the center hall for the 10-17 year old set.  I wish one of my finished projects could have been the hall walls, which were stripped of their wallpaper 3 years ago and have sat waiting for doorways to be moved and new trim to be installed, but that didn't get done.  I got a bid to have it done - a mere $3000.  Waaaahhhh.

We ended up putting all the food on the island and letting people serve themselves and their small children, and this helped make things easier too.  The food was delicious, the company was great, and it was just an all-around good day.  I missed having Joshua and Teffy there, and that was hard, but it felt good to be surrounded by so many loved ones.

The dining room, with my beautiful but too-short table cloth.  It's hard to cover a 10 foot table!

My well-mannered children  ;o)

Again with the manners...

And again...

And again!  

The kid table.  Adding to the general confusion was that my two blonde nieces (different families) ended up wearing the same shirt!

Even Buddy came to visit from Colorado

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My mom will be mortified if she sees this picture, but it was the only one I got with her face showing!  Sorry I caught you with your eyes closed, Mom! 

And then to cause further embarrassment, I caught Jaime with a mouthful of food.  She still loves me.  :o)

And my beloved, with his gingham shirt playing tricks on my camera.