Pictures

Thanksgiving at Grandma's house 2004 :

Grandma had surgery on her foot the weekend before Thanksgiving, but the party was still on. She just got to put her foot up the whole time and watch the rest of us cook. Well, watch us cook and read the paper.

Grandpa was there too. He wasn't always reading the paper though.

There were so many kids and grandkids in the house that grandpa and grandma slept outside in the tipi. Grandpa and Uncle Jordon spent a while getting it ready.

The first to arrive were Aunt Linnaea and her two kids, Mia and Trevor. They stayed for a whole week and got to play a lot of silly games with Aunt Wendy including Mia's favorite - hide and seek. "Okay, you find me. I'm going to go hide in the closet this time," she says.

They also got to play dominoes with grandma. It's pretty exciting stuff when your 4 and 2, let me tell ya. You match up those colors wherever you can and try hard to wait for your turn.

Next to arrive - Daniel and Elizabeth with their parents. That's Aunt Julia with Caleb in the background.

Uncle Tom brought his laptop and Star Wars games were ample entertainment. Caleb wasn't so sure about them though.

The big day arrived and Uncle Isaac had all hands on deck by 8:20am - not to get the turkey in the oven, but to go down to K-Mart for a HotWheels Collector Event. I got a cool gold Hummer H2 but traded it away to Isaac for this nifty motorcycle and lunch the next day at a great Italian restaurant. He sold the Hummer on ebay that night for something like $18. I'm still not sure who came out on top of that deal.

Here's the classic setup - the grownup table and the kids' table. Sadly, they were all a little bit young to appreciate the joys of the kids' table. However, they thought it was awfully neat that it was short.

Yay, pretty Thanksgiving flowers for the table.

Time to chow down. I think at last count there were 15 at table. Sounds like a respectable number.

And of course, after the dinner is the traditional cleanup of the leftovers.

And the traditional post-turkey nap.

And the post-turkey pumpkin pie. Nobody's sure which kids are responsible for the finger-tracks, but they're of varying sizes so best guess is that it was a team effort. Nobody saw it happen, and that's pretty good when the kids are outnumbered 3 to 1.

Castles were also built. In this picture Daniel and Trevor look about the same age. There's a three year difference.

More video games were also played. SSX Tricky, yay! And the Thanksgiving Day Movie was Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers. There seemed to be no enthusiasm for watching football this year. I missed you Uncle Duane.

After their bath, Mia and Elizabeth helped with the Thanksgiving Puzzle. Here, Mia's not sure Elizabeth is taking it apart right.

Mia wasn't the least bit tired by the end of the day. She assured us of that many times over.

Friday after Thanksgiving is kind of a blur to me. Seems like I spent most of it going to and from the store. Daniel had homework - he was supposed to bring an Invention to school. Here his mom is helping put together his (quite elaborate) cricket habitat. It has a fountain with a river that runs down a mountain, cricket houses and more.

I got to play with the baby some more too. Did I mention I'm good with kids?

Saturday was the day everyone went home. Mia and Trevor were the first out the door. She's pretty thrilled with the handbag grandma's letting her take home. Believe me, it was the height of fashion 30 years ago. I think she's just excited that it can hold baby dolls. Also, nice shoelaces.

Caleb was pretty excited to get back in his car seat. I guess he was ready to be somewhere else. The rest of us had a happy Thanksgiving, though.