A weekend of Thanksgiving!

My family and I have much to be thankful for this year, as always! The delights of seeing our new home nearing completion is so encouraging! Here is a little look into our weekend of rejoicing and thankfulness!

Oh yes! We have to remember the pies! I have always stacked the apple pies as tall as I can! They get to looking like this before the top crust goes on!

This one is ready for the oven!

I don't really know what got into me! I think I was a little too eager to taste the pie! Apple is my favorite! Yummy!

And this is how you cook your pie, till the oven smokes and the smoke alarms start ringing all over the house. It wasn't the pies! It was the juice that oozed out the side! :sigh: It does that every year! I did find a way to prevent that while cooking the next two pies!

We were delighted to have Michael J visit for the evening before going to David and Keslie's. Lydia thinks SO highly of him! Look at her eyes!

Thanksgiving day! The pies are done and not burned! Our guests were: Grandpa and Grandma H, Grandma E, dad's brother Paul and his girls Katelyn and Kelsie.

Friends of ours gave us these darling turkey cookies to place at each seat! They were so festive and yummy too!

Another thing to be grateful for is that Grandma was able to be with us! She hasn't been in our home since August and with her Alzheimer's we were very nervous how she was going to take all the excitement of the day, but she did very well and seemed to enjoy herself! We were so blessed to have her in our home again!

Our sweet cousin Katelyn, Gracie and Heather just as they finished all the dishes! That was a lot of work, thanks girls!

Then everyone went out to the house!

The hearth is all done! We are going to put rocks from our river on the back wall. It should look great!

All the inside doors look like this one here. Grandpa began hanging them yesterday!
~~~~~~
I have to break the flow of this post with a story that leads up to the rest of these pictures. It is long but I beg you to finish it so you can understand the rest of the post correctly!

Day after Thanksgiving Leftovers

It’s the day after Thanksgiving. Most of my family is painting at the new house and like always they need lunch. There are plenty of leftovers so I have begun to prepare it for warming and transportation. I call dad to see if they are going to take the time to come home for lunch or not. He says not. While I am talking with him Lydia comes screaming into the room with blood running down her chin. She has bit her lip badly in three places after a fall. Now, I’m on the phone with dad, telling him how bad it is, trying to calm a sobbing child, and thinking about the food that is getting too done in the oven. Whew. I ‘m finally able to get her relaxed by turning on an Andy Griffith Show and having her hold a cold damp cloth on her lip. I start flying around the kitchen trying to get everything in portable containers; did I mention that is now 1pm? The painters and kids are hungry! After many trips to the car with the meal wrapped in bathroom towels to stay warm I run out the door carrying my coat, purse, camera, and a roaster oven full of rolls keeping warm. Then I have to shut the door. So, I set my armload down on the porch to get a free hand. The lid slides off and skids a couple of feet away from me. I reach for it with the rest of my load in the other hand. I get the lid back on….it comes off again…I’m ready to leave it there when for the third time it comes off…After totally rearranging my burden I proceed to the van. Yikes! There is no room to set it down! Gracie is scurrying to make room…and by now the handles are hurting my fingers something fierce! After the rolls are safely stowed in the van with the lid held on by one of the girls I start to back up the van. Then yells of excitement burst forth as Sarah and Gracie start franticly warning each other to get a hold of lids and pans as they begin to slide about! Finally, I am assured they have them all secure and we are off. But not for good! Over half way up the driveway, Sarah yells to Gracie to get a hold of the peas since they were bouncing around as the van lurches over the potholes. Gracie asks what peas and says this pan is the gravy. No, said Sarah, that pan has the peas in it! Where is the pan with the gravy? Sigh, on the stove. So, I proceed to back the 12-passenger van all the way back up to the house as I’m thinking about all the heat that is leaving the comforting meal. I run up to the house and grab the gravy and a knife I’d forgotten to get for Taylor. While getting back into the van, I notice that someone had stepped on my seat with a dirty wet shoe….oh well. Once again we were on our way. It isn’t calm yet. We have to go over the potholes once more. The brakes are very touchy in the van, hang on girls! Every once in a while I hear, “Yikes! Hang on to that lid!” “Oh no! This box just landed on top of the marshmallows on the sweet potato pie! The box has most the marshmallows on it now…” “I almost sat in the jello!” Then I would yell for them to hang on as we are going around a corner! Then I look over to Lydia sitting calmly in her car seat with her damp rag plastered to her lip. Nothing fazing her! Finally, we pull up to the new house to see the front door on! What a lovely sight to behold! HOME! The food is carried inside and my family is sitting down to a Thanksgiving meal in our new home! As we are eating I look around and see my dad sitting there covered in paint! What a day of Thanksgiving! We are painting the house and despite all it took to get the food here it was warm (not hot, but warm) and everyone is full and happy and I’m ready for a nap!

Ta da! The front door is on!

The front door from the inside!

Our first Thanksgiving in our new home! haha!

Dad with a painted face though it did get MUCH worse as the day progressed!

There was not enough room at the table for the kids and the food so they got the hearth with the warm wood stove behind them!

Trying to get the sprayer unclogged. It turned out it was the primer that was causing it to clog.

Dad shooting the boys closet!

Grandpa has everything set up to hang the powder room door!

Now he is covered! LOL! Lydia wasn't sure about him and said he was scary!

Without his hat!

Now, that is a sign of a hard worker! It's a big house to paint! Thank you daddy!

Saturday Josh G. came and helped the boys chop wood, move painting stuff around and fill buckets, and some last minute work under the house! Work like that is always more fun with friends! Thanks so much Josh!

The masked man is Derek A. who came today to bring our paint, spray like crazy and critique Mom and Heather while they rolled our room! He was a great help and knows a lot about painting! He also has "friends" in high places and was able to get us an incredible deal on excellent paint, thank you so much Andrew R. you are a true blessing.

Thanks Derek, you were a great help!
(Oh, and also a big thanks to him for letting me use his camera while mine is getting fixed! Now you all can get more pictures!)