Thanksgiving Weekend Continued Part 2

A highlight of Thanksgiving Weekend is the BYU vs U of U game.  I relish this rivalry (and hate it when people take it too far!  C' mon people!)  

  We were blessed to share this fun event with the Haruch Family!  And we had a great time!  Ate too much, laughed a lot and witnessed the agony of defeat!  But there is always next year hee hee hee...

We had some rebels in our group this year.  Uncle Aaron there is wearing a red shirt under his blue shirt and Aunt Christine is doing the same, shocking blaspemy!  Oh and it is a well known fact that Joseph here has been a U of U fan for a number of years now.  (Oh where did we go wrong?)  But, I have been  surprised to see him warming up to the "Y" over the past year.  (So there is hope..all that fasting and praying might be working :D   ha ha!  






During half time, We feasted on deli sandwiches, cheese and crackers, a yummy drink,  veggies and dip, chips, and a bunch of desserts.  Thanks so much Chrissy and Aaron and family...  We had such a good time with you.  And we love  you bunches.  

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving Day Feast Guests:
The Genti family from France
The Schmidt Cousins

 Highlights of the day, laughter, good food, Three kernals activity to count our blessings, games, singing around the piano, amazing apple cider, pumpkin pie and whipped cream and plain old relaxation, chatting and fun.  Cozy house, warm happy times with family and friends.  So grateful !

  Menu:  Turkey, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Sweet Potato Pie, Stuffing, Relish tray, Green Bean Casserole, Rolls, A special French Dessert and Pies.  Yum!  And amazing apple cider to wash it all down.

After dinner, we did our three kernals activity.  Everyone is given three kernals of corn and everyone expresses 3 things they are grateful for.   It was a warm, happy time.  Even 3 year old Scotty got into telling everyone what he is grateful for.

There was lots of thanks expressed for family, friends, home, freedoms, divine revelation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ,  food, diversity, so many great things, some very original. I wish I had written them all down.

After dinner there were lots of games.  The kids played "Signs" downstairs for probably an hour.  From waht I could tell from all the "hoopin and hollerin" they had a great time. We played Pit and Monopoly got started.    

At the end of the day, there was more pumpkin pie and plain old relaxation, laughter and talk... And Singing around the piano.   It was a wonderful day!
 
I must say that having Grandma Knudsen with us made the day so special.  Her mere presence anchors us, helps us remember who we really are, where we come from and our hearts beat with gratitude for all the love and learning, lessons she has given to our family for so many years.   It was so delightful to be with her.  Absolutely wonderful to stand next to her and sing around the piano....  precious times.  And dang!  I didn't take a special picture of her...  I need to hire a photographer for these events!  And since that won't happen, I just need to do better.

We also so enjoyed the Genti's.  It was so great to have them with us.  Along with the Schmidt's our wonderful fun cousins.  

And here is a great thought about Gratitude:

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns 
what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, 
chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a
house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of 
our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Over the River and Through the Woods...

to grandmother's house we went...but only after we had this little adventure:

We packed our Suburban, everything was ready to go, every boy had dutifully obeyed their parents and used the bathroom, grabbed a pillow, a book to read and had taken their seat in the car. The house was locked up, checked and double checked. Garage door shut. We bowed our heads to pray and then Steve tried to put the car in gear to begin our well planned trip (which we were all excited for!) And well, the gear handle thing-y wouldn't move. We all just said to each other, "have faith...it will work! We have prepared, we are ready and we want to go..." But it wouldn't budge and as Steve kept messing with the blasted thing it broke and soon that gear thing-y was hanging out of its socket. We just looked at each other a bit shocked! And then we started laughing.

But, then the realization sunk in that we were stranded... Thoughts swirled through my head of us sitting alone together at our table for Thanksgiving...kids moping around the house for one long weekend ...oh nooo... These thoughts and the look of disappointment and worry on my kids' faces made me spring into action forming plan B and C.

I ran back inside the house and called rental car places only to learn that it would cost us a mere $700-$800 to rent a mini van or Suburban to get our family to Grandma's house. Well, that was out.....so then we thought of Aunt Barbara and Uncle Rod and their large blue van that they don't use that much anymore and we crossed our fingers and gave them a call...and those generous, wonderful people came to our rescue and brought this over......our ticket to Grandma's house.

My kids let out a hoop and holler when Uncle Rod came driving down the street. Rod gave us the run down on all the van's special unique quirks that it has acquired over the years like a long time old friend... It only took a few minutes to transfer all of our luggage and things and soon we were on our way..."Over the River and Through the Woods to Grandmother's House," thanks to Rod and Barb. I can't tell you how thankful we felt.

Yes, at first this van doesn't look like much but we quickly developed quite a love affair and deep appreciation for it. We lovingly dubbed it the "hippie van," and decided it was "out a sight cool man," and we were on our way...and seriously we decided we want one of these things....Every boy had room to spread out and that made the trip so much easier on everyone. Thank You Barb and Rod ...we will never forget your kindness...this Thanksgiving 2009!

Some Scenes From Thanksgiving 2009.....

The Cooks! Jill, me, Mom, Diana, Lynette, and Cathy... One of my most favorite places to be in this world is in my Mom's kitchen cooking with these wonderful Ladies.. We are missing Christine and Gayle who were probably whipping up the huge pans of potatoes over the other Crowley house.

Cathryn and Katie. Katie was enjoying her first Thanksgiving home after leaving for college at BYU-I.

Stir, whip, mix, peel, chop, and talk, talk, talk, cry..can't get enough..

Diana making her yummy sweet potato pie...!

Time for the Feast! We had our Thanksgiving Feast at the old Crowley Soda Fountain. Lots of history in this old place...it just seeps out of the floor boards and out of the walls. Grandpa Les Crowley's nearly life size so cool and so handsome picture hangs prominently on one wall, so he was there with us in spirit. I was camera challenged on this trip and did not take enough pictures...and I am sure being busy setting out the Thanksgiving feast also has something to do with why there are too few pictures.. This was the first time we had ever had Thanksgiving here...We are such a big group now that we can't all fit comfortably in Mom and Dad's house. So, we thought this might be the next best thing to holding Thanksgiving at a church. Hmmmm...

Cousin Fun!

Emily and Julia...

Younger Cousins hangin' together...

My two beautiful sisters, Lynette and Jill!

The whole Thanksgiving weekend was great fun and here's a few more things we want to remember:

• Game Night--crazy fun!
• The U of U/BYU game...Wow! and how all of my brothers in law and brother were willing to get up and leave to be at the temple for our session as a family in the heat of the last few minutes of the game. What commitment! I'd say they all have their priorities straight. We all made it on time and it was a beautiful experience to be there all together. I am so blessed to have such wonderful, faithful brothers in law. They taped the end of the game and we came home to watch it after going to the temple.
• Fun visit with the Lyda's our old friends!
• Feeling like a little kid while I played with my three youngest at this place called "Hop To It" a building filled with blow up bounce house types of things..obstacle courses, slides etc.
• How fun it was to drive home all comfortable in that big old van excited for the Christmas season to begin.

Thanksgiving '09 was 4 fun filled days full of singing, shopping, feasting, laughing and talking. Playing games, sacred time at the temple together....cousins and adults alike, watching movies, and lots of memories to cherish! Thanks to all of you....who made it so fun.