Thanksviing 2013: We're the grownups

Lindsey and I got together for Thanksgiving this year.  I can remember when we were kids and we would go to my Grandparents house for Thanksgiving.  We'd be playing around and running in and out of the kitchen while the grownups cooked and cleaned up the meal.  Well, this year we were the grownups.  

Brandon was very happy to be around for Thanksgiving this year. He was still at Basic Training this time last year.  He started making pies on Monday night.  He made a berry pie for me because I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin.

 We planned to pack up the Honda on Tuesday night, but first we had to get it out of the garage and give it a jump because somebody left the dome light on again. (Our only complaint about the car is that it is entirely too easy to leave that light on.  It needs a buzzer or something.)

 Brandon is so talented.  He had a pecan pie baking in the oven while the Honda battery was re-charging.

 Wednesday afternoon we drove down to Houston after Brandon got off of work.  We had to make a quick stop at the Honda dealer.  We needed the code so the radio on the Honda would work after all our battery fun from the day before. I had a box with 4 pies on my lap and I was carrying a 5th pie.  The guy at the service department was like, "oh this car comes with pie."

 The kids all zonked out and were quite for most of the 3 hour drive down to Houston.  Veronica woke up and started crying right as we passed the "point of no return" AKA a church that is 20 minutes from Lindsey's house.  I figured it would be worse to stop, feed her, and put her back in her seat than to just listen to her cry for 20 minutes. So we kept driving.

 We got to Lindsey's house and the cousins all had lots of fun running around and making lots of noise.  They eventually fell asleep, but were back at it bright and early at 7:00 am this morning.  That was okay because Brandon had lots of things to do in the kitchen - like cook the turkey.

 Lindsey helped us make some easy headbands.  She made some funny ones for the guys.

 Brandon made lots and lots of rolls.  Brandon was in a good mood and put this shirt on that John got from somewhere.  Apparently the Quarterback for the Houston Texans isn't very well loved by the city.

 We all watched the Macy's day parade while the food cooked.  This year the girls' favorite balloon was Snoopy.  Here are Veronica and me modeling our headbands with the TV in the background.

 Derrick was in a very happy mood too.  He had fun playing some sort of peek-a-boo game with Gretta through the window.

 Soon it was time to sit down for dinner.  The kids all sat at a kiddie table next to the grown up table.  They all at a ton of pickles while we finished getting everything ready.

 We had a lot of really great food.  Brandon received a turkey through some organisation at Fort Hood.  He knew how to cook it from all the Thanksgivings he helped his mom prepare.  Lindsey was very happy to let him take over.

 He even took care of carving the turkey.  Lindsey has a foreign exchange student living with her this year.  Viktoriia took lots of pictures because this was her first Thanksgiving.

 We dished up food for the kids (the older three didn't eat that much, but the younger boys ate a lot), and then sat down to feast on the food.  It was all really good - especially the green bean casserole.

 And then it was time to veg.  Veronica had been asleep during the meal.  She woke up and I fed her.  Then I put Brandon in charge of her so he could have a reason to relax - he'd earned it.

 I did the dishes while Derrick "helped."

 And then it was time for pie.  Brandon made the pumpkin pie with pumpkin from our Halloween Jack-o-lantern.  He also made an apple pie and a pecan pie in addition to the razzelberry pie.  Lindsey made the blue berry pie.  The smaller pumpkin pie came from the same place we got the turkey.  All the pies were really good (yes I had a slice of each), but the berry pie was the best.  

And now my stomach hurts!  I can hardly stand to look at these pictures right now.

It's been so much fun to have my family here with Lindsey's family.  It's still kind of weird that we are the grown ups now.