Give Thanks

I have a lot to be thankful for from this past Thanksgiving. (Thanks to Kellee for the amazing banner!) Earlier in the week I took a spill down the stairs and hit my back side pretty hard. Did I mention that are stairs are all hardwood? The excruciating pain has made normal, everyday tasks difficult.  If you have been a long time reader of this blog you know that we always have people over for Thanksgiving.  I love having our friends and family over, so canceling Thanksgiving wasn't even an option for me.

The day before Thanksgiving was when a lot of prep work happened. My Lutheran Stud was home in the morning to help lift our 20 lb. bird for me. This has been my favorite turkey brine. It beats making your own when it's super cheap. I stock up when it goes on sale and I just love it. When it's boiling on the stove our children says that our house smells like Christmas. It's awesome and I highly recommend it.
With my little helpers we did a lot of prep work the day before. All of our children love making side dishes. Even Anna said she wanted to help, but quickly changed her mind saying, "Mom, my back hurts."

Our guests arrived and we stuck the little children in the kitchen so they could make all sorts of messes on the floor. ;)

The older children were much too old to be with the little children, so we let them hang out at their very own table.

We had an incredible feast with great company. I wish I had more photos to share, but I really wasn't myself that day. Bummer! Everyone was so gracious and helpful. I couldn't lift a single thing out of the oven and didn't even have the table set, but no one seemed to mind. They enjoyed cracking some great jokes though!

After dinner the men retreated to the garage to translate Greek over cigars and vodka.

We ladies scoured the newspaper ads.
Then we hit the road, while the men stayed behind to put children to bed and play a little poker. I didn't really have a list and thought I'd go along to help stand in line while Keri and Heather shopped, but as it turns out the lines moved so quickly that we never waited long.

 I have to say that what I was most thankful for that evening was our fabulous husbands. We came home to a spotless kitchen and all of the Pyrex had been hand washed!