Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving 2007! Rich's favorite day of the year. What a great day we had here in Lexington. The weather had begun to cool down from the record high of 70 the day before, so it felt like it should be November 22.

Since we moved to Kentucky at the end of 2000, we have years of happy Thanksgivings all with friends. So many wonderful meals and memories with people we love. We have spent six years with the Hamiltons and Madsens. Fun times. We wish our schedule allowed us to travel to Louisville once again, but it couldn't be. Thanks for the invite Josh and Tiffany. We know it would have been perfect to share your last Kentucky Thanksgiving with you. Todd and Kristi- plan on us next year!

The girls were up VERY early at 6:15 AM and the boys soon followed. So much for sleeping in. We had lots of time to cook, get dressed and enjoy the day. I watched the entire Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade as I cooked and loved seeing American Fork High School and Dunbar High School (Lexington) marching bands in the parade. Of course I love to see Santa, but the thing I like the most is watching Broadway songs performed. This is when I first was introduced to Wicked years ago.

We invited the Badger family (Eric, Jonni, Luke, Sadie and Cameron) over to celebrate the big day together. They will be moving back to Utah in June when Eric finished his periodontics residency, so we were very excited to spend this special day with them.

I cooked the turkey, stuffing, yams and potatoes, bought cranberry sauce and had a few crafts for the kids. Jonni brought a ham, fruit, rolls, green beans, vegetables, pies and ice cream. We had enough food to feed the masses and there were only 12 of us and only 4 who really ate a bit of everything! It was a great meal. My biggest helpers. I guess I should say, my much too helpful helpers! Brynn loved to eat the little piece of bread and Kaitlyn tried to stir up everything with her fork. I let them help me dump in the spices and they both had to put their hands on the spoon. They smiled and giggled through it all. Such fun to have two constant shadows.
What to do when your 20 pound turkey cooks in record time and you still have 2 1/2 hours til dinner? Do what my mom does and wrap the bird up with a million towels! It was still hot when it was served. I was impressed!Rich was impressed with the turkey's great knee cartilage (he would like his to look that healthy) and dissected the back so we could see the spinal cord. Still a doctor even while carving a turkey. (He did miss either the Hamilton's or Madsen's electric carving knife he's used in years past!)Eric and Jonni Badger.
Most of the kiddos. Gotta love the Little Tykes picnic table (it is used more often in the house than in the backyard) and the Neat Sheet keeping things clean underneath.Brynn is happy to be part of the big kid gang.Matt checked out all the choices and was really daring when he chose to have some turkey and a roll.Josh on the other hand tried the green beans and ham, but only had one bite of each. Kaitlyn enjoys a homemade roll and tries to destroy the butter on the table.Trey turned into my dad and insisted on devouring a turkey leg. He ate it all!Cameron was a fan of the ham.Luke wanted bones with his turkey and lots of chocolate milk.
Sadie wasn't feeling great in the morning, but was 100% for the party.
A perfect time to cuddle when our bellies were full!
The kids had Thanksgiving coloring pages to work on before dinner. Josh did a great job on his.
After the feast we had wooden Christmas ornaments to decorate,and made beaded necklaces. We didn't even get to the pom-pom penguins!
The kids said forget about the pies (pumpkin and cherry) and gobbled up almost an entire carton of vanilla ice cream. The girls were trying to get spoonfuls of cool whip or at least a few finger dips and licks!

Hope your day with filled with many happy memories!