Thanksgiving

I have neglected to share our delightful Thanksgiving because my sister so adequately captured it on her blog…so I thought it redundant but, I have had at least one request so here goes.
My parents, my oldest sister, and her family joined us at our home for my very first domestic venture into holiday hosting.

I was a tad nervous about the timing of all the dishes that we wanted to be cooked and or warmed and I couldn't have been more pleased with the outcome! I followed a turkey recipe that I found HERE, brining it overnight and the whole bit. It turned out just beautifully, perfectly browned and crispy on the outside and moist on the inside, phew!


We introduced Jennifer and Julian to the fun game of Hand and Foot/Canasta, I think it was a hybrid of the two games since we like to make our own rules and the quantity of rules involved gets really confusing for newbies, especially when said newbies are imbibing while playing. Anywho, it was a rousing game, the conversation was a riot and mostly civil, although some people are less gracious at losing :)
The boys had SO much fun together which is a total blessing from God. There are several years between them but they ran all over the house, ridding it of bad guys, entertaining us with sword and gun fights, they "killed" the multitude of deer in the backyard after luring them in with apples, played baseball with daddy-Bing and had slumber parties every night.

The Coeur d'Alene Resort Lighting Festival drew us all out into the cold and rain, and throngs of people but it was totally worth it! They set off a fabulous fireworks display over the lake before flipping the switch on several million lights covering trees and wreaths and the myriad of displays on the dock. It was stunning.

Also, stunning… Addie and her offspring

From Collages

Me and my babies

From 2012-11-23

Special Audgy kisses

From 2012-11-23

Grammy and Madman in the streetlight

Shortly after the family left, narrowly escaping a nasty snow storm, we went out Christmas Tree hunting. On our way we passed by a tree farm that looked charming so we pulled on in. It was an old barn with worn wooden floor boards that were smoothed, yet knobby, from many years of training Arabian Horses. They gave that up to create a Christmas tree farm… We tramped all over for the perfect tree, sipped on cider and nibble some popcorn before Julian tackled the beauty to the ground. Who knew that Carhartt bibs make a perfect baby carrier?