Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving celebration started on Tuesday with Grant's kindergarten Thanksgiving celebration. Cole, Tyler and I were able to attend. Cole loves any and every opportunity he has to spend time at Grant's school and in his class. He loves to feel part of the class and Grant's teachers and classmates really make him feel like he belongs. It was a very fun afternoon. The boys made a fun Thanksgiving craft, scratching designs into leaves.
After the craft, the boys went around the classroom looking for the letters in "Thanksgiving." The class listened to a fun Thanksgiving story then we all went outside to plant daffodil bulbs in a dirt plot in the parking lot. We enjoyed delicious pumpkin and apple pie from Costco after our hard gardening work. The best part was last. The class performed the songs they have been learning for the month. One in particular was so beautiful and made me cry. Here is the video: http://youtu.be/1U3Xp5QxcZs (I wasn't able to find my phone as we were heading into the school so I had to get the videos from another mom.)
They also went around the room to read their "thank you" slips from their thanksgiving pouches. Many children were thankful for siblings or parents. Grant is thankful for pie. The pouch is decorated with items from nature he collected from our yard and brought into class. He did the sewing and gluing on the pouch by himself.
http://youtu.be/j8zVSiabkzU

We continued our celebration on Wednesday. Grant, Cole and I worked hard to get as much food preparation done as possible. We made the rolls, the chocolate pudding pies and the cornbread for our stuffing and started the turkey bringing. Grant hung in with me until the bitter end, continually asking what we could do next. He was particularly excited about brining the turkey and kept asking if it was afternoon yet because I told him we didn't start the brine until after lunch. Cole was a helper too. He would wander in and out of the kitchen, helping when he felt like it and sampling the goods more than anything. He sat at the kitchen table for about 20 minutes licking the roll bowl as clean of dough as he possibly could, while Grant and I worked on the cornbread. The boys loved dropping the graham crackers into the food processor and eating about every other cracker that came out of the package. Grant broke off the pieces of dough for the rolls and rolled them into balls then I dipped them in the butter and put them on the pan. He did a great job at that, working really hard to get the balls the same size. Cole stole a ball of dough here and there and tried to eat them. We worked so quickly and efficiently that we had all of the major work done by 10:30, before Tyler woke up from his morning nap (thank goodness). The rolls and cornbread were cooked, cooled and sampled. The graham cracker crusts were baked. We just had chocolate pudding to cook and a turkey to brine after lunch.
We headed out for a couple of errands when the morning baking was done. One of our errands took us to Walmart for a few last minute food items and the start of a new Thanksgiving tradition. My kids, and Grant in particular, love board games. I decided this year to start a new tradition of buying a new game for Thanksgiving weekend that we can enjoy playing all weekend long. After much discussion, debate and browsing in the game aisle of Walmart (which, by the way, pales in comparison to Targets), we settled on Sorry.
After our errands and lunch, Cole and Tyler laid down for afternoon naps while Grant and I made the pudding and the turkey brine. Grant stirred the pudding and helped squeeze the oranges and lemons into the brine water. During our morning round of baking I had the boys pull the thyme off the stems into a bowl so Grant just had to dump the herbs into the brine. He also helped pour in the salt and sugar and held the bag open for me while I put in the turkey. He told me he remembered from last year that he's not allowed to touch the turkey because of the germs it has.
By the time we finished up those tasks, the little guys woke up and we prepared ourselves for our last adventure of the day. With Papa, who had been out all day, visiting old friends, we headed over to the Anderson's house where they were slaughtering and preparing the 25 turkeys they had been raising for the last couple of months for various friends' Thanksgiving dinners. It was quite an experience. Cole was more interested in the giant swing set and two play houses in the backyard so he didn't pay much attention to the turkeys. Grant, however, went into the pen with Papa and watched Jeff catch, string up and slice the neck of a couple of turkeys. The turkeys then hang there until the blood is drained. When they are drained they are taken to a big drum of boiling water to soften the feathers before being plucked, gutted and boiled again. It was quite a process. It was also fun to see a lot of friends. The Andersons pretty much have a small farm, complete with a steer, multiple horses, countless chickens and two pygmie goats that wander the backyard. The best part is that they live right in town. We were able to collect two dozen eggs that the chickens had lain that day (and take a dozen home with us), pet the goats and feed the steer and horses. The boys were in heaven and after being their over two hours were in heavy tears when told it was time to leave.
Thanksgiving morning started like any morning. Get up, make stuffing and put a turkey in the oven. The bird was in the oven by 8 AM because I did as much prep as possible before going to bed, including cutting the onions and making the sage butter. We relaxed during the morning and ate our Thanksgiving feast about 12:30. It left us the rest of the afternoon and evening for naps, games of Sorry and Uno and other activities. The boys took advantage of my inattention to their activities to build forts on the couch and with the dining room chairs. They also enjoyed stacking up the pillows on the couch then jumping onto them from the couch armrest. Not a safe activity I know but they did have so much fun.

Papa was the photographer most of the day and he took some great ones of the boys. Grant found some silly glasses in a birthday party grab bag he got a few weeks ago. He wore them around pretending to be Harry Potter. Because Grant had glasses, Cole needed glasses so he borrowed a pair of my sunglasses. They wore these glasses off and on all day long.
The boys also had a great time building inventions with Chad's old O-chem set.
Chad spent a couple of hours at Granite Mountain Middle School, playing touch football with other elders throughout the stake. He came home smelling of wet grass and complained of being sore and worn out. I moved between the couch with Tyler and the kitchen working on preparing the meal.
Our poor little Cole spent most of the day sick with a horrid nose and chest cold but he managed to join in the games, just not the food, except when it came to dessert. Cole wasn't interested in the pie, just the whipped cream. It being a holiday I decided to throw all rules out the window and let him enjoy two bowls of fresh whipped cream.
Grant ate just enough turkey dinner and salad to earn him two full pieces of pumpkin pie.
Chad, in true Chad fashion, way overdid the eating part of the holiday, starting with two full plates of food, several pieces of pie and finishing the night with a final plate of turkey and rolls. It's no wonder that after dinner he laid akwardly on the couch complaining of an aching belly and trying to keep the kids from pushing on it while they were climbing all over him.
It was a good day, very low key and quiet. Just what we needed and wanted. It makes me realize how grateful I am for my family. My boys are my pride and joy and my husband is my best friend. I am grateful for the home we have been living in for over two years, for the warmth, comfort and memories it provides. We may be moving to Flagstaff in January and it will be sad to leave a place where so many fun times have been had.