Gobble Gobble

The holiday season is upon us and we have already hosted more than our share of parties. We love hosting and we love having the house filled with family and friends. However, it does make an already hectic life even more so. Throw in vacation planning and preparations, well, let's just say I'm so happy to have vacation days to use to extend the weekends. We've needed the time!

To kick off the holiday season, we hosted our 2nd Thanksgiving. Last year, when I was hugely pregnant, my parents flew here to celebrate with us and helped us host in our brand new home. I helped as much as I could but I wasn't good for much more than social hosting. I left the heavy cooking\cleaning to Mike and my parents. So, this year was our first year flying solo. And speaking of flying, it was our first year to cook the bird (my Dad took care of that last year). Mike did a smashing job with the turkey!

The morning started out by enjoying the pumpkin muffins Dylan had helped me cook the night before. Yum, yum!

Then it was time to start cooking. Mike and I actually had done a fair bit the night before but there was no lack of things to get done. It was a fast paced morning.

Entertained By The Breadmaker

Luckily, our guests are not timely. If they had been here at the time Mike said we were starting, there would have been no appetizers and missing one host since we were still getting ready. As everyone started showing up 45 minutes later than planned, we were just putting the cheese and veggie plates out to enjoy.

We had 19 folks at the house in total. Mike's parents, sisters and their families plus one of our friends and her family. Lots of kiddos that Dylan enjoyed playing with immensely. It was loud, it was rowdy and it was a lot of fun. We were having too much fun to remember to take many pictures. Here's what we did manage:

Ryan, Luke, Dylan and Corwin Playing

Maureen Reading to Ryan, Emily, Cade and Luke

Post Meal Hanging Out
Kristina, Jim, Betsy, Tom, Maureen's Reading Group

Kari and Jimmy

Family photo we thought of taking after Kristina's family had already left.
Top - Joe, Patrick, Tom and Mike
Bottom - Betsy, Emily, Dylan, Cade, Me and Maureen

After everyone had gone and a very tired Cade was in bed, Dylan and I took part in the age old tradition of breaking the wishbone.

Kiss For Luck

And in line with the old tradition, I lost yet again. That wishbone always gets away from me. Beaten by a 3 year old. At least it was a cute, sweet 3 year old!

We had SO much food leftover that late Thanksgiving night, we sent out an email to friends to host another party on Friday with all the food. And wouldn't you know it, almost every single person we invited was able to come. 24 folks, about half being young kids, flooded the house Friday afternoon. It was very casual. Tupperware was left out and paper plates and the microwave was provided. Of course, I didn't even think about taking pictures until after the party was long over. Guess that's a testament to how fun and chaotic the event was. And there was still food that we ate off of all week long!