Thanksgiving 2011

I have to start my post with a correction to the whining I've been doing.  I could have sworn the last time we ate with my family was Grace's first Thanksgiving because I vividly remember spending my pregnant Thanksgiving, sick, at David's parents' house.  The every other year rotation got messed up somewhere.  Maybe we ate at both places the year before we moved away.   Anyway, even if it hasn't been the 8 years I keep yakking about,  it has STILL been a long time since we ate Thanksgiving dinner with my family.  It's been 7 years.  The last one was just before we moved to Boston at my Grandma Pearlie's house, with all my cousins and Aunts and Uncles.

However you slice it, returning to Salt Lake 7 years later for a Thanksgiving dinner with my sisters and the Mitchell (Barnhisel) cousins was a super big treat for me.  Harriet has never had Thanksgiving with my family and the cousins have never eaten together either.  (well, little cousins didn't exist last time!)

It would have been an absolutely perfect dinner if my poor sister, Emily, would have been able to come.  The life of an ER nurse caused her to have to work 12 hours that day.  I think that's why I didn't take a picture of everyone at the table.  I kept thinking I should, and wishing I would have, but it just wouldn't have felt complete with only one person missing from the whole family.  I did take a picture of Melissa's pretty table before we sat down though.

Everyone helped cook.  Good thing Melissa has a ginormous kitchen, and an extra kitchen to boot - with all the sisters, the husbands, and mom making different things.  Even with 3 ovens, we were embarrassed to wish we might have had a 4th.    This was also the first year that my family has eaten our own Thanksgiving dinner.  It was kind of weird and cool that we could fill a big Thanksgiving table with just our immediate family.  I guess we are getting old.

Speaking of old... Dad is turning 60 in two weeks.  We took advantage of family togetherness and threw him a small birthday party at the end of Thanksgiving dinner.  We all went in on a laptop for him - can't let him get too old and slip away into non-computer usage life.  Dad, I hope you've got your internet hooked up so you can read the blog now :)

 (and for some reason, my kids turn every holiday into Halloween and find a costume to put on.)

The 10 hour drive was made much shorter by the fact that I didn't have to drive it by myself.  Thanks David, for driving us all up there.  We spent a great weekend with my family, getting a good start to Christmas.  Melissa, my Mom, and I, went to see the latest Twilight movie.  I have seen every single one of them in the theater with my mom.   That's pretty impressive considering we've never lived in the same state since they came out.  It doesn't get better than seeing a trashy movie with your mom at midnight.  Good times.   We tried to do some black Friday shopping, but in the end, we didn't have the stomach for it.  The kids got a prize and we were done.   But, we did get to see Santa at the mall.  This was the first time Melissa's kids had ever gone to see Santa.   They all told Santa what they wanted in good form.  Grace sounded like the kid on A Christmas Story - she is very specific and to the point.

Cute Emily thought that the big sisters (aka - grouchy mommies) needed an afternoon at the spa.  So, she treated us to a pedicure for our birthdays (which are 2 days apart next month) and played with our kids while we went.   What a nice thing!

Grandma brought over this cool craft that we used to do with our Grandma Primmer when we were little.  I used to LOVE these darling Santas.  Grace made us all make one and we had a contest for the best.  Jessica won - she got creative with a candy-stripe Santa suit.  Why didn't I take pictures all weekend?  Bummer.  Well, these are the ones we brought home:

David and I even got to hang out with a couple of friends.  David spent all of Friday with Jared, our friend of many years, going on decades.  They froze to death watching the Utes lose a crucial football game and then drowned their sorrows in their favorite wii game and favorite Chinese food.  I got to see the Covilis for a bit too and then spend a blissful late night with my friend, Adrienne, sitting in a coffee shop sipping Limonatas and spilling our guts for hours.  I love talking to her.  She keeps me young as she's a full 10 years younger and in med school and doing all the exciting "get your life started" stuff.  Thanks to her, I learned how to text and stepped into the 21st century.  

Well, thanks bunches to all my family who did so much to get ready for us to come and to make the weekend great.  I left Salt Lake feeling so lucky to have such an awesome family and such great friends.  For all of it, I am truly Thankful.