Thanksgiving 2013

We enjoyed a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner with wonderful people at my parents' house in Park City. My mom's one sister and her children and their children plus some neighbors gathered for a suptious feast for 42 that my mom so aptly prepared (with me and Jared and the kids as her helpers). My mom knows how to make everything so lovely and so tasty. And it was wonderful to have time with cousins that I see too seldom.

Here's the day in photos (sorry - forgot my good camera so I just have phone photos...):

I like to take a photo of the kids every Thanksgiving. They apparently don't care for this tradition:


As everyone arrived and the adults did all the final work on the feast, the kids got to work on their "thankful lists" - my mom got cute pumpkins they covered with stickers and wrote what they were thankful for on each sticker. Some kids got really into it and did very long and impressive lists.




Ready to eat:


My mom somehow found enough plates, glasses and sliverware for EVERYONE and made the tables look so very beautiful.

Here's each table - empty then filled:

 

The adult table:

The teenage girls' table: 

The boys' table: 

The girls' table: 

 The teenage boys' table:

Mmmmm - pie!

With some of my dear cousins (why didn't we think to get a picture with everyone?)

After a great time in Park City, we headed out to Riverton to spend time with Jared's brother and family plus Jared's mom. Always so good to be with them and catch up on everyone's lives over delicious pie. I loved hearing about college from my nieces and remembering those good old days of my own. Ashton totally beat me in "Just Dance" but I beat Eliza so I guess I'm not terrible at it. Love that game.

I'm so glad my kids have such great cousins to look up to:

Then on Friday, we helped my mom with some of her holiday decorating, did some shopping (made a decent dent in our list) and met up with more cousins for a super fun time at an indoor trampoline place (why didn't I take photos???). Then we stopped for one last feast on the way home - at In-and-Out Burger.

So I can remember the kids' cute handwriting and what they wanted to put on the Thankful Tree this year, here are some snapshots of what we got:

Brothers (SO happy that Ashton decided to put that one on - sometimes it's hard to tell if he actually is grateful at all for his brothers), legos and k'nex, basketball

 Not getting sick a lot, primary, trampolines

 Nature, money, laptops

 the color blue, texting, Heavenly Father and Jesus

 cars, stairs, Utah, Canada, people and gas (quite a random selection on one leaf!)

 Christmas, the opportunity to serve (loved seeing this one!), the lights, the napkins and the tables

 Babies, buttifull (beautiful) animals

 Books, food

Ogden, school, trips, Holy Ghost to guide us

Oh, we have so much to be grateful for!