Thankful Thanksgiving

We had a good, traditional Thanksgiving this year. It started out with Jake's annual Turkey Bowl. He organizes this every year, and every year it gets more complicated, and competitive. He worked so hard on it, and it turned out really great. (Even if his team did place last. Sorry, honey!) Rohne jumped in on the photo, if you will notice he is up front next to our friend, Tila.

We decided to go watch, and just caught the last game, which was okay. Rohne loved running around the football field, and wanted to play along with the guys. Tay and I were freezing, so we snuggled right along with Jessi, who had been there since 7:30 that morning. What a supportive sister!

Here's the 3 kids eating chips, and watcing a Christmas movie.

And, here's another one with Parker, who we can't forget. What a cute kid!! He ate the whole Christmas tree empty of candy canes, I think.

I didn't take many photos of the day, probably because I was feeling very sick most of the time. Too darn much food, I guess. The table was beautiful, food was good, and the company was great. The one tragedy that we had was the turkey. Oh yes. . . . Jer and Mo decided to provide a smoked turkey, courtesy of Stan's BBQ. We ate it last year, and it was awesome! Well, we started cooking it at the designated time and temperature, and when we went to check it at dinner time, it was still cold. It was pre-cooked, but still had to be at a designated temp. in order for it to be safe to eat. Needless to say, we did not taste smoked turkey that day. When we left at 9:15 that night, it was still in the oven. Sad, sad, sad. Sharon had cooked a small turkey the day before, for some gravy, so we heated that up in microwave, and it was okay. The appetizers we ate the whole day long were the best.

We invited our friends, Clark, and Lisa to come celebrate with us. It made for a crazier house, but it was fun. Then, we decided to attempt to get a family photo, which Clark took for us. It is sooo hard to actually get everyone looking, with their eyes open, then say smile. This picture was my best one. I think that Monique's camera got the better one. Anyways, this is our family, on Jake's side. Two brothers, one sister, 2 grandparents, 2 daughter-in-laws, 2 granddaughters, 2 grandsons, and growing by the minute. I am thankful for so many things this year. My wonderful kids and husband, a loving extended family, our health and lives, Jake's job in this shakey economy, wonderful friends, and of course a Heavenly Father, who watches over us, and makes all things possible. There are many more things in my life which I am thankful, but I won't list them here. I sincerely hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.