Happy Thanksgiving!

Talk about a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

We took pies over to my dad's house in the morning (he said he didn't want turkey and trimmings... just pie), so we spent our Thanksgiving mid-morning with Dad and his pies. Not sure I like that new tradition, but he said he lost his taste for turkey a few years ago, and he wasn't willing to pack himself up and spend the day at someone else's house. So, anyway, I put up his Christmas decorations while we were there, and the kids all got a slice of the cherry pie they helped me make the day before.

Anyway, after that, we came home and fixed our turkey feast; turkey, cranberries, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, vereneky (our new Thanksgiving tradition, John decided), olives, lefse, lotsa Christmas cookies and pie. After we were all done eating, I asked Liana what she liked best about her meal, and she said, "the skin!" (She LOVED the turkey skin and begged all the rest of the day for more. Must be my kid. I love it too, but it has to be crunchy and salty...) The Fishers came over as did Uncle Jared and little cousin Glenn. Nice day.

In the evening we hauled out the card table and had all the kids make hand and feet turkeys. They were pretty cute. Adam's is funny. His foot is exactly as big as mine is (I'm a size 7 1/2), so his turkey's body (the foot) is realllllly tall, especially when his is sitting next to the rest of the kids'.

Lets see, Grandpa brought over an enormous box of popsicle sticks today too. He taught them how to make popsicle stick bombs. So, my new job title for the rest of my life is going to be Chief Stick-picker-upper ! ;O)

I got pretty wilty this evening, so I layed on the couch. Before I knew it, Liana and Aleksa came over to tuck me in. Whenever we tuck the kids in, Aleksa always likes to tell us "what she likes." She'll say, "Mama, I like it yogurt, and juice, and Cream of Wheat, and...." That's her favorite topic of conversation at bedtime for some reason. So, when she tucked me in, she said, "Mama, what you like? You like it juice?" Of course I told her I did, and then she said, "Ok, Mama! Good night!" and kissed me on the cheek. It was cute, but probably not so cute if you hadn't been there and known the background behind why she said what she did.

Before bedtime (and after everyone had left), we all sat on the couch and talked about the things we were thankful for. The kids (and Mama and Papa!) were all thankful for their families. Liana summed it up best by saying, "I all-a-ya loves it!" (Obviously we're not completely fluent around here yet...) They were also very thankful for all their food today, and for their "everyday" food. They were thankful for their warm beds, nice house, that snow was coming soon, and that we could put our Christmas tree up soon, and Adam even said he was thankful for his school work and Mama teaching him! (I about fell over!) We also heard that the election results in Ukraine were cancelled by the Ukrainian Supreme Court until further investigations. *whew* Very thankful about that. (We're really hoping Yushchenko wins). Great way to wrap up the day. The kids were exhausted from all the excitement and playing, and my back was killing me from all the work I put in too. Must mean we had a wonderful day!

Happy, happy Thanksgiving everyone!