For This [was] Thanksgiving Day

I've decided to finally come home from my mental vacation and blog about our stupendous Thanksgiving. We went to my parents' house in Southern California and just . . . relaxed!! That is the main reason I've been out of it lately- I just wasn't ready to come back. I read (actual books and everything) and watched all of Brian Regan's shows on my brother's iPod and laughed and laughed, and laughed some more. We watched movies and the kids played video games. My mom and I went running in the morning at the park, so we could feel less guilty about our Thanksgiving Day binge- it worked! :) It was so fun.

My Mom, Mrs. Creativity herself, had the great idea of putting on a puppet show about the first Thanksgiving. We grown-up gals sewed yarn on the puppets' heads for hair at night after the kids were sleeping while we watched movies. Here's Mom helping the kids glue and cut and design their puppets:

Spencer loved my Uncle Dean. It was a good thing because I got to have two whole hands all to myself to make yummy food!

Here's my sister-in-law, Kristina- the genius chef behind all of the deliciousness!

Let's talk turkey!

My pies!! I finally figured out the key to a scrumptious crust- the shortening has to be ice cold, and so does the water. Actually, lard is supposed to be the best, but I just have a hard time saying, "OK, I need 1 cup of lard, please." I'll stick to shortening. and I will probably continue to say shortening even after I take that next step to the full-on lard.

The preparation is my favorite part. If I had to choose between making the food and actually eating the food, I'd choose the making. We laugh and joke around and everything smells so great. There's Christmas music playing softly in the background and the kitchen is warm and full of excitement.

What's Thanksgiving Day for the guys without a nice, cozy nap, while the womenfolk slave in the kitchen? (and laugh and joke and sing and dance and sample- but don't tell the guys that!)

My sister, Cari, is laughing over a private joke. OK, I'll fill you in- there was a certain extended family member who went around sampling the food while we were making it. We decided to laugh instead of getting too grossed out. I didn't tell Gary about it until after he ate. He was still grossed out.

God bless us, everyone!!

After everyone ate, and before we devoured the pies, we were entertained by the kids' puppet show. It was SO cute!!

My parents' house has little "windows" in their walls that just scream "Puppet Show!!" It was perfect.

So there was our fun day. I have more pictures of our little CA vacation that will be coming soon. Thank you Mom and Dad for a stupendous Thanksgiving!! I'm still full!!