We Are Thankful for...(part 2)

We are thankful for family and a new roof! We had our Thanksgiving family gathering (all 13 of us) today for our noon meal (well 12:30 pm...I said that we would aim for noon and eat sometime between noon and 1pm...I hit it exactly right...right between the two times!). We all probably ate too much, but enjoyed family fellowship and lots of good food. The top picture shows the younger children's table in the kitchen...note that Goosey (Woody) fits into that category! Sorry that I cut off Nathan's head. He, Melany, and Woody were serving the children's plates. Then the rest of us big folk gathered in the dining room. Works well. Everyone pitched in either prior to the meal or after and helped me get the food ready and/or cleaned up! Erin and Wade peeled the potatoes. Wade is our official potato masher and Melany is our turkey carver. Before the end of the day, Melany cut all the turkey off the bones and I started in making turkey broth for our traditional turkey soup. Kathy, Woody and I joined in the effort of the clean up...Woody washed most of the dishes, Kathy dried them, and I put them away. I also got the food into the refrigerator. Those who weren't in the kitchen were helpers by staying out of the kitchen! Alex entertained the little ones for part of the time that we were working. After Melany, Wade, Erin, and Alex left, Woody, Kathy, Elijah and I picked up toys. Pumpkin pie seemed to be a hit...that is what Melany, Graham and Abigail chose for their supper. Melany's cookies were also a hit. Joy, Esther, and Elijah chose two of those for their supper. It ended up being a backwards meal as most of them decided to eat something else from the leftovers after their dessert! There was quite a bit of game playing...everything from Scrabble and Chess to Princess Uno. Erin and I escaped upstairs and worked on turning one of her drawings into a design for me to stitch with the machine.

The roofers arrived around 8am and left probably sometime around 3pm. We were all thankful that we have a two-story house...the noise was much less downstairs than upstairs. I guess we will now wait for the next rain to see if they did a good job!

Woody is still not feeling the greatest...allergy problems. His voice is pretty scratchy so he pretty much just sat back and observed. He did play a game of Scrabble with Erin and Alex.

I cringe when I notice what today's date is...one month from today...and I am so "not ready!"

I'm hoping that tonight's blog goes through...one minute I'm online and the next I'm off...not sure what is going on, but am too tired today to try to figure it out!

(I was finally able to post a picture on yesterday's blog.)