The Longest Thanksgiving Recap that You will Ever Read

See this lovely picture of our family? It isn’t from this year. I didn’t take pictures this year. I’m not sure why. This was our Thanksgiving crew. Just imagine all of these people one year older.
Fred’s mom and her husband came to visit along with Fred’s Grandpa. We were fortunate to have Grandpa stay with us while Lois and Larry stayed with Kristin (Fred’s sister). They came in Tuesday afternoon and left Monday morning.

We were so glad that we could spend so much time with Lois and Larry (Grandma and PawPaw Larry). Games, cards and dominoes were the order of business during their stay. The kids always get to learn new games while they are in town. It is so fun that they will have those memories of playing games with their grandparents. When Lois and Larry stay at our home, Jonathan always engages Grandma for hours playing checkers and Sequence.

My kids enjoyed hanging with their cousins every day for five days. During the week, we did a little kid swapping. We took our 13 year old nephew, Chris, for a couple of days and Jess stayed with her cousins once. Jonathan completely idolizes Chris, so he really enjoyed having him spend so much time at our house. Mostly, they just sat in front of the TV playing Game Cube. At one point, I threatened to pull out the bikes and make everyone ride around the block. I was too tired to make good on my threat. So I spent much of my time with three couch potatoes. Yes, I really did mean three. Fred joined in on the Game Cube fun.

My favorite part of the week was playing with our almost-5 year old niece, Kylie. We spent lots of time playing Polly Pockets, dollies and SpongeBob. As if I don’t get enough of SpongeBob at work, I got to pretend like I was SpongeBob working at the Krusty Krab. I thought she might be impressed with my intimate knowledge of all of the SB characters. Not so much… she just kept asking for more Krabby Patties. Since I don’t get to play little girl games anymore, I really enjoyed sitting on the floor being silly with Kylie. Too bad Kristin has 3 built-in babysitters at home. I could be easily persuaded to come hang out with her when needed.

We all enjoyed Grandpa’s visit. He is 92 or 93 – I’ve lost count at this point. We were so glad that he was able to make the trip this year with Lois and Larry. Jessie absolutely adores Grandpa and relished the time that he was in our home. Grandpa lost a portion of one of his fingers many years ago. Something to do with a cow or a bull pulling it off – Jonathan could tell you the story. He thinks Grandpa’s finger is so cool.

Jonathan is really bad with names. He can never get anyone’s name right. When I first told Jonathan that Grandpa Goyer would be staying with us, he asked if I was talking about Grandpa John. He was really surprised when I told him that he doesn’t have a Grandpa John. Our only guess is that he was talking about Angela’s dad, John Turner. We really don’t know any other grandfathers named John.

We have to extend a big thank you to Glen and Kristin who made a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. Everything was delicious! Their home is bigger than ours so everyone always congregates at their home for the week. We truly appreciate them opening their home to our family. Kristin, we will have your family over to our house for dinner this month!

Thanks to everyone for a wonderful Thanksgiving. I was having so much fun that I forgot to take pictures! We love you all.