The Thanksgiving Blog- Before December hits!

Before Dec 1st hits, I thought I better upload the photographic evidence of Thanksgiving.

I spent the morning wrapped up in jammies, bathrobe, slippers, socks, undershirt and mittens...it was dang cold!!

As is my personal tradition, I cracked open a DP at 9am and watched the Thanksgiving day parade:

Made some HOMEMADE Butterscotch Pies (hey, I had to MIX all these ingredients!):
Ta Da!
and then I watched some more of the parade:

As the afternoon dawned and some rays of sunshine appeared, I donned my gloves, packed up the car with stuffing, crafts, olives, cranberry sauce and awesome butterscotch pies, picked up a niece living nearby and headed over to my BRAVE brother and sister in law's house. The three mile drive was GRUELING. The traffic, I swear- three stoplights!!

These brave souls were hosting about 30 people...10 of which were kids. That is not a good control ratio, FYI! Before I was attacked by small fry demanding crafts and personal attention, I managed to get in one photo of the lovely table:

Our brave hostess and her mother:

and some random hams....I mean nephews...who showed up:

The youngest of the brood, affectionately known as "The Escape Artist" is on her feet now - god help us!

and yet another kid...I swear they were all over the place! It was like a horror movie!

Being the kind hearted auntie I try to be, I brought over some crafts to keep them occupied while dinner was being prepared. Crafts included:

* Color your own drinking mug

* Make a beaded snowflake

(me saying...stop whining, there is one for everyone!)

* Make a beaded wreath

* color a damn picture

(me saying...shut up already, I 'm getting the next one! Get off me!)

* Color your own wooden ornament

(me telling one to stop crying, I didn't mean to kick you when I stood up to catch The Escape Artist before she got to the stairs!)

and I think that was it...whew! The average craft completion time was 3.5 minutes per craft...these kids need to learn to slow the hell down!

Here are the kiddos, enjoying the crafts, somewhat:

Meanwhile, the adults were awaiting the Thanksgiving feast:
While more crafts were being completed in less than 3.5 minutes per craft:

Finally! The 30 pound (yes, THIRTY POUNDS) turkey was ready for it's debut:
and the people flocked to the table - side one:
side two:
Of course, my stove top stuffing (homemade dang you!!) was given high ratings by some:
Others were more interested in the traditional "olive fingers":

Other than my AWESOME BUTTERSCOTCH PIES, there was some kind of pumpkin, pumpkin cheesecake, lemon meringue, apple pie and I think that was it:

Pie Grades:

Awesome Butterscotch Pie - A+

Other Pies - uh, yeah, I didn't get a chance to try them....C+, B+? I heard the pumpkin cheesecake was good!

The kids look forward to attacking their personal butterscotch pies each year...each in their own special way:

After dessert, things kinda spiraled downhill a bit:

But I managed to get a few good shots (although my niece took the one of me with some of "the blondes"):


I finally managed my escape.....excuse me, I mean I finally headed home around 7pm. Good food, Good fun, and MOSTLY good kids....Happy Thanksgiving all!

Christmas 2009...it's all for the kids, you know.

Christmas is the time for:
* Children
* Presents
* Eating
* Drinking
* Church
* Valium
* Cookies
Not necessarily in that order, mind you. Here is a selection of the photos from this year's Christmas Massacre.....excuse me...I mean Christmas Festivities. Took me a few days to sort and load, much to the chagrin of my family.

We start with Christmas Eve, and a photograph of the very anticipatory cousin brood, waiting permission to dig in:

Onward to Christmas morning, a morning filled with tearing, throwing, tossing and terrific amounts of noise.

The stockings had fallen off the chimney, with care:

Santa had left a note for all to share:

And sugar laden donuts were laid out for those that did dare:

An infant was passed around to share:

Then opening of gifts started, with little fanfare:

a certain young binkie stealer took from her dolls, without care:

The cousins then paused, to see what was next to tear:
Then started to check out their haul, and began to "not share":

Must to the children's dismay, the "old people" then got a turn to open their ware:

He's smiling cause he knows it is NOT popcorn in there:

Finally, the children were allowed to open and play without care:

and we got to hear MORE Disney Sing It...beware!

Santa had left Auntie a photo key chain with specific photos of Santa with her, from when they were dating (nothing bare):

While others got up to some mischief, by dare:

Look at this child, so beautiful with that hair!

more mischief by dare...

One kid wanted to help with Auntie's famous, laborious Stove Top Stuffing preparation, with care:

While another lazed around, waiting for her next chance to cause mischief, by more dare:

OK, enough rhyming!

Soon enough, it was time to devour Dad's famous barbecued turkey:

I believe my sister found cloves for THIS version of her pumpkin pie:

I made a tragic blunder this Christmas and thought the application of edible snowflakes would be a cool way to top my AWESOME HOMEMADE Butterscotch pies. WRONG. They tasted like cardboard. And when the children start tossing them aside, you KNOW they are bad:

Some kids headed off to ANOTHER Christmas at their Noni's house:

Finally the Christmas massacre...excuse me...festivities, wound down for the year:I leave you with a last...TOTALLY INAPPROPRIATE but very funny shot of the 18 month old getting her drink on:

Please note: This was a sealed container and it was taken away immediately after the photo was taken!