Thanksgiving Festivities!

Kent is our home decorator. Did you know? He did this for Thanksgiving. He is adorable. 

We got a package of cards from Grandma and Grandpa MacKay, and Kent made them wait to open them until the day before Thanksgiving. 

The kids were so excited to find chocolate pilgram boys and girls inside!

Kent picked up this beautiful cornucopia. 

He got this bouquet too. Who does this? I love him. 

The family started to arrive Wednesday, and the kids couldn't have been happier for all the attention!

We laughed and talked and baked until bedtime! My mom had the laptop so we could work on family history. =o]

Jenae and Joseph made the apple pies, with "help" from the kids. 

Once we got the peeler figured out we all enjoyed eating the long strings of peelings. =o]

Learning his trade!

I LOVE this picture! 

Thanksgiving morning we watched the parade of course, and Seth was SO EXCITED to see all the different balloon characters!

And of course we took some time out to play football in the new play-in-able backyard!

I had my one and only hostess freakout when we took the turkey out of the fridge and it was still pretty much frozen. Luckily my dad worked a Thanksgiving miracle and thawed it in enough time to get it in the oven on schedule. We are so grateful for experienced family members!! 

All the cousins enjoyed being together, but these two were especially joined at the hip. Super cute and silly!

There were more books read than I thought possible in one visit!

The Murrays brought these delicious and nutritious and pintrest-able pre-dinner snacks!

The Horlachers taught a balloon tying class! They are adorable. And the funnest aunt and uncle ever!

(I hate it that some pictures turn sideways and there is no way to fix it!!) I didn't get to actually participate in the class as much as I would have liked. But I'm glad all the kids had fun!

ROLLS. Yes they were as delectable as they look!

The other great thing about the balloons was that it kept the kids out of the kitchen until it was time to eat!

The tables were set!

We called everyone in for a prayer. Kent asked me to say it. I felt so much gratitude and joy as I thanked Our Heavenly Father for all our bounteous blessings! And maybe I was just super caught up in the moment but the kids were even pretty reverent. Then the feast began!

After eating for an hour we left all the dishes and food out and bundled up to go carol to one of my neighbors who I wanted to get to meet my family. They just moved here, and they are from Costa Rica. I wanted to share with her two of the things in my life that have brought me the most joy: my family, and singing with them! They enjoyed it and so did we! Then we packed into our cars and drove over to the same assisted living center we went to with our Friday Friends and then sang there too. Each family/couple choose a song, and then afterwards we visited with the old people for a minute before heading back home. One woman I noticed sang every word of every song with us. Another woman's eyes were shining as Seth let her shake hands with him and pat him on the head. I hope we did some good there, and brought them some cheer. 

The kids were crazy in the car with the cousins of course!

Then it was time for dessert! It all looked and smelled so good!!

I served myself a bit of everything. I had been waiting for so long for this moment! Not ONCE did I slip up or cheat for the entire time! I thought it was going to be so satisfying to eat sweets again! But honestly I was kinda disappointed. I mean, it was shocking. Literally I felt a shock in my mouth and throat as I took bites of the different things. And it was fun to taste those flavors again. But I couldn't finish even half of it. And within 20 minutes I had a headache! Probably dehydration honestly, but it was a strange coincidence. I definitely learned a lot about myself doing this challenge. I'm glad that I did it! 

Then my favorite memory from the weekend- taking turns from youngest to oldest saying something we are grateful for. My family is AMAZING. Seriously, to a person, outstanding.

I was especially grateful to hear Phillip and Katrina's comments. They are such genuine people, and I love them. 

Then the Murrays headed home, and we put the kids to bed. We played some games, and cleaned up!

Melissa and my dad doing dishes like champs. 

Then we all stayed up super late talking. I can't even begin to describe the fulfillment I get from deep conversation with my parents and siblings. It is hands down one of my favorite things in the world to hear their thoughts and share mine and just feel the truth and energy in the room! They are good people. I admire their earnest convictions. I am grateful for the strength of their testimonies and their commitment to the Jesus Christ and His prophet on the earth today. Again I am at a loss of words to describe the comfort I receive from knowing these stalwart saints surround me, support me, and will ground me and keep me in check if ever it is needed. 

Friday morning we had pancake breakfast and Kent/the-REAL-Santa started decorating for Christmas. =o]

My dad taught me how to shape/prune all our new trees. Joseph worked on his truck. 

We headed down to the Murrays for lunch and good times until bed time! Derek taught us a class about several health things he has learned. The one that stands out to me the most is that worrying and stressing over things literally hurts your health, and so if you are prone to that one strategy is to set aside a certain time each day to worry, and only worry during that set time. Pretty cool! 

The Murrays got a Ping Pong table at a Black Friday sale and so of course we had a tournament! It was so fun!

All the adults had fun taking turns playing with the kids, and I especially enjoyed seeing Phillip make an effort to play with the kids so they won't be intimidated by him. =o] 

Kent made it to the final four, and beat Derek to go on to the finals. 

Kent and Eric played the last match! The both have such different styles so it was super interesting to watch! Eric won. 

Here is Caleb and Whitney giving it a go!

Then we had a yummy pasta dinner- everyone's favorite!

And to end the night we played a couple rounds of around the world. SO FUN!! 

As soon as we got home we put the kids to bed and let Jenae and Joseph "babysit" while we went and saw Catching Fire Part II! It was good! And fun to go on an unexpected date for free!

The next morning we slept in! Then we hung out and decorated for Christmas until everyone arrived for lunch. We ate pizza and watched the BYU football game and talked the day away!

The cousins had many adventures! I used to wonder what the heck the adults did at reunions because I never saw them. Now I wonder the same thing about my children! Over the next few days I got the blow by blow, but at the time it is just weird to not be with them all the time like we normally are. 

Melissa was doing research for a project for her last semester of school! It was cool to hear everyone's answers about literature in their childhoods. 

There were a couple of super exciting moments in the game, and I'm so glad I got to celebrate and cheer with everyone! We won the game! And I'm so grateful that we got to have everyone over for Thanksgiving! We won the weekend for sure! =o]

Everyone headed home family by family. Jenae and Joseph saying goodbye was sweetly sad. It was fun to talk to Joseph and Jonathan though after the kids were in bed because they didn't leave until early the next morning. We found out a lot about him, for example his family hunts deer every year and they freeze the meat and eat it for the rest of the year. He even brought some up to school. WOW. Now that is hard core! No wonder he likes our FFA national delegate! We stayed up way to late talking, and I felt bad, but at least I got them some breakfast and snacks for the drive before they left this time. 

It was a wonderful weekend. It was the perfect start to the most wonderful time of the year!