Thanksgiving, part 2

Warning! I am really long winded! A short summary is at the bottom of the page, but I wanted to record this for family that wasn't able to be there for the festivities! Thanks for your patience with the rambling. I can't promise that it will change anytime soon, but you love me anyway....right?!?

After our trip to Idaho Falls, the rest of the time was pretty boring, but I wanted to document it anyway. It was a wonderful time. My youngest brother, Jason, came home from college. My sister and her husband of a year came from Pocatello where he is going to school and Heather is working. My older little brother, Scott, came up from Provo where he is finishing up his masters in Engineering, but this year he brought a new little someone with him. My sister in law and brother had a new baby girl on Oct 22, Aunna Nellie, so I was able to meet my niece for the very first time. She is absolutely adorable and it was a lot of fun being aunty, getting to hold her, but when she pooped handing her back. Usually I am the one that gets the poopy baby back so that was fun. It was interesting to get that many people into my parent's little house, but we managed somehow. I think Jason was feeling picked on because as the only sibling not married yet, he ended up on the couch with Kyrin. The rest of us ended up with a bed of some sort, even if it was a blowup. (Definitely one of the perks to being the "fat" sibling, I don't have to deal with a blowup bed. Mom is scared that it would go flat so John and I get a regular bed.)

Thanksgiving day was celebrated at my Grandmother's house. We had a WHOPPING 30 people for dinner. I still don't know how we were able to fit that many people in her house, let alone at tables with nice table settings! I still believe that grandmas can work miracles. I have believed it since I was a little girl, and I witnessed proof of it again this year. I saw Aunts, Uncles and cousins that I haven't seen in what we figured to be about 2 years. It was wonderful to get together and just be family. I got to sit at the "married grandchildren" table. It was a lot of fun to get to know a few of the other "new" cousins that married into the family. Well done cousins! You did good! It was so weird that there were so many of us. It seems that I had been the lonely only for so long, (most of them have only been married a year or 2 at most compared to my .....8....) besides, they are WAY too young to be married. (really, I think they are the same age I was when I got married, if not older!) My brother and I are still the only ones with children or in the child way, as I was referred to a few times. Eating was an interesting proposition. I have dealt with some pretty intense morning sickness this go around, so I wasn't too sure if I would be participating in the "festivities" but with a little bit a luck and a lot of drugs, I was able to eat most of it. (I still couldn't handle the turkey, didn't matter how many drugs I took, it was still a meat product and there was NO way!) The one thing that really surprised me was the horsd'oeuvres. We always have crazy ones. This year we had dill pickles with cream cheese wrapped in ham and green onions with cream cheese and shredded cheddar cheese. When I saw the pickles, my first reaction was yuck, BUT trying to be a kind niece, I took one to try. IT WAS AWESOME!!! It was like all pregnancy cravings wrapped up in one! I went back for more, but everyone else must have been smarter then I was and took more then one, cuz they were GONE! I am still bitter about it. I will make some more, but I am afraid that after I make them, I won't want them anymore. Isn't that typical?!?

The last full family adventure we had was playing volleyball. It was a blast. There were all ages there, my grandpa, a pregnant me, my sister in law a month out from a c-section, all the way down to my young 10 year old cousins. The only downer was that everyone was very cautious with me because I kept forgetting I was pregnant and diving for the ball... oops. I'm at that very awkward stage where there isn't anything to show your pregnant until you do something stupid and then you get a HUGE reminder! I only went down on my belly once, but after that, I would get yelled at for even going down on my knees. I still am bruised from the game and my muscles are just now getting back to normal after the abuse, but I would do it again in a heartbeat! We are a competitive family but we also have a whole lot of fun doing it. I think we played for about 3 hours. It was a wonderful way to wrap up the trip.

To sum it all up, our holiday was filled with food, fun and family and I couldn't have asked for anything better! I hope yours was just as wonderful.