The Thanksgiving Trifecta {Thanksgivings 2022}

Our Thanksgiving was three-fold this year.

We stayed home on Thanksgiving Day.  This is a rare deal for us.  We actually were invited to Mike's aunt and uncle's but we had a busy couple of days ahead and decided at home was where our crew needed to be.  We started the day with bacon and homemade cinnamon rolls.  And yummmm....I've worked hard on my cinnamon roll game, and I think it's getting there.  

We even let the kids eat in front of the TV while they watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

What fun to see the band from our home state university.  We've had several cousins and friends go to MIZZOU, and Mike had a cousin in the marching band at the parade.  We spotted him at the very beginning of the live telecast but not in this clip.

After the parade the kids and Mike started putting a bit of decor outside for Christmas while I began our mid afternoon meal.  It turned out that most of our lights didn't work, and the garland was a mess, so we chose to be content with one lighted wreath and our nativity.  We try hard to be magic makers but sometimes kids just have to understand that parents have limits too.  We could have either pushed ourselves and inevitably gotten grumpy or called it a day while there was still joy.

We worked a bit on inside decor while Evalynn napped but saved most of it for after she woke up.

I took every shortcut possible on our mid afternoon meal, but it was still tasty.  

We decided on chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing (mainly for me), garlic sauteed green beans, and garlic bread with pumpkin bars for dessert.  It was delicious and we were all hungry since we'd have brunch instead of both breakfast and lunch.

The kids helped me set a nice table.

One of the most exciting things to everyone was our real glasses with the water pitcher for refills.  We usually drink out of water bottles 24/7.

My mom served many a roll on this bread plate.  What an honor.

After lunch and cleaning up we turned on the movie Elf, decorated our tree and put out some mantle garland, the Jesse tree, our nativities, and a few other holiday items.  

It really didn't take too long - carrying everything up and down takes longer but I have lots of helpers now and I'm thankful.  We ended the night just being us.  Kids playing.  Dessert being eaten.  Messes being tidied.

Xavier headed to the kitchen to make oatmeal pies for Tallman Thanksgiving.

Friday morning we were up and around at a decent time to head to Missouri for a couple of days. 

Friday was spent at my folks' house for our family Thanksgiving.

Artie was dressed so cute....and then got completely soaked outside and spent the day in the nude.

Our kids stayed outside for the first hour that we arrived, enjoying the beautiful day.  So thankful for sunshine.

A favorite picture from the day...

These two went to grandma and papa's bed "to nap."  Yeah.  Right.

Our meal was traditional and phenomenal and too much per usual.  Turkey, mashed potatoes and noodles (and gravy, but honestly the noodles are where it's at).  Green beans two ways, baked squash, corn, hot rolls, stuffing, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something.  We even put cranberries on the table because they are beautiful even though no one eats them them.

We filled and overfilled and enjoyed our bounty and each other.  And then we cleaned it all up.  LOL.

Lauren brought Bingo and most of us played while our food digested.

After Bingo we had desserts a plenty and then some played cards, we visited, the kids went back outside awhile, and we just passed the time being together.

"He's kinda slobbery!" - Evie

"Mom, would you like to give me your phone so I can take a picture of you and your sisters!?" - Ameliya

And yes, Artie is as ornery as he looks.  Cute, too.

We had leftovers for supper - those who needed to eat - and then the sisters and their families headed out for the evening.  We stayed over for another day of fun.

Some kids were up too early Saturday but couldn't be convinced to go back to sleep.  Evalynn + Grandma = snuggles.

Zayden opened a birthday present and was overjoyed to get a toy fiddle like Pa Ingalls.  Unfortunately it has not withstood the test of childhood so we don't recommend, but we are thankful to Grandma and Papa for trying!  I tried to hunt and got overwhelmed.  We're currently looking at other options for him.

We had breakfast and then got ourselves around and loaded up to go enjoy a day with Mike's side of the family.  Another delicious meal of friend chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, green beans, rolls, and fresh salads with all the fixings definitely hit the spot!

What a crew!!

I did not do a good job taking pictures.  Actually the time seemed to fly by and before we knew it the day was passed.  

The kids spent a lot of time outside and I visited with my aunt for a couple hours when she stopped by.  We ate desserts and leftovers for those that were hungry again and before we knew it it was time to load up.

Matching dresses for these little frenemies.  Both are youngest and like to have their way so they had lots of chances to work things out amongst themselves.  Once I did intervene when Evalynn was being pointedly unkind and ungracious, but overall we all decided to let them navigate it.  Since they were together just the weekend before there was no timidness and I secretly loved listening to them work through their disagreements.

Also - they are sure cute.  By the end of the night they were pretty well best buddies.

Then it was back to Iowa for us.  We could have stayed another night, but there's no sleep like your own bed and no routine like home routine when you have many children.

We praise that we encountered no deer on our drive home in the dark and our little lighted nativity was shining for us when we arrived.