Gram and Gramps were hosting at the Davis house, so there was lots to get done before the big day. Since it's the busy time of year at Portrait Innovations, Gramps and Uncle Reid also had to work most of the holiday. That's ok, we still had lots of good family fun! On Tuesday and Wednesday, we tried our hardest to wear out some puppy dogs and keep the house from being a total disaster. We also helped to track down the elusive oysters for Jennifer's famous scalloped oyster dish. You'd never believe how tricky it is to get oysters at that time of year, but we finally managed to find some.
On Thanksgiving morning we were lucky enough to be able to go to Portrait Innovations while it was closed to get our Christmas card pictures taken by Uncle Reid. They've updated that particular studio and it looked really nice. It was so much more peaceful to get pictures made when there was no one else in the studio. Reid is also a great photographer, so we had the pictures done in a snap. The boys might have gotten a bit goofy at the end, but they were entitled to be a bit silly after sitting for such good pictures.
(Our family picture for our Christmas card-aren't we beautiful?)
(getting silly at the end of the picture)
After pictures, we hurried home with a few additional groceries to prepare for the big meal. I'm always amazed at how Gram manages to get everything out and ready to serve at exactly the right time while entertaining company. This time, we even managed to get a fabulous family picture of everyone who was there just about as things were coming out of the oven. Now that's multitasking.
We had a great time chatting and having fun with the Davises. The boys had a great time getting to know and playing with their cousin MacKenzie. Ben, of course, was just quivering with excitement waiting for Uncle Don to arrive. For some reason, Uncle Don is about Ben's favorite person in the whole world, and he kept heading to the door all day long to see if he was there yet. Benny dragged Uncle Don upstairs to play with toys at several points in the evening. The meal was delicious, from the Grandma Zales cheesy corn casserole (not the Bitler version, but still delicious), to the mexican chocolate trifle for dessert. It's always hard to get the boys to eat new foods, but I feel like they're gradually eating a little more every year at the Thanksgiving table.
(three turkeys)
(two boys cooking Thanksgiving dinner)
(all about the baste)
(playing with Uncle Don in the rec room)
(the Thanksgiving feast)
(the kids' table-minus Walker and Wesleigh)
(the other Thanksgiving table)
(the family poses during a break in the dinner preparation-aren't we a good looking group?)
After dinner was over, Gram could finally relax. We had a great time just playing around the rest of the week. Gramps even got a little bit of time off to see the boys. On Friday, Gram took us to see The Penguins of Madacascar at the movie theater. Now, I wasn't too enthused about it, but it actually turned out to be a really cute movie, and just up the boys' alley.
Saturday, Uncle Reid and Aunt Candice came over and brought their dogs to hang out all day. I was worried that Uncle Reid and Aunt Candice's dog Pepperdew would get into a fight with Ripple because Rip doesn't really get along that well with any dogs. Luckily, Pepperdew was happy to submit to Rip's little dominant attitude and they had great fun racing and chasing in the backyard while Gram looked on worriedly from the window. We actually managed to sneak in 2 games of Ticket to Ride that day. Unfortunately, I didn't win either one, but as always, I had fun playing. Ben is starting to enjoy coming to watch the game. He wanted to join in and played on my team for a while, but it's a bit complicated for him just yet.
(Evan built a masterpiece)
(the train game)
(all this activity wore out a poodle)
(Evan's creation to monitor all the dog activity)
On Sunday, we finally had to head home. It was a fabulous, relaxing weekend, and it was just what we needed to get ready for the holiday season. Thanks to Gram and Gramps for being such wonderful hosts!
That day, we headed home and picked up the Christmas tree before we even took the suitcases out of the car to unpack, but more on that later...
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