1st Thanksgiving

Tyke really enjoyed his first Thanksgiving!  He got all of the stuffing, mashed potatoes and yummy yams his little belly could hold.  He was in heaven with all of the good food that was just the right texture for him!

We had a hectic morning, we all slept in until 8 a.m. (wow!)  and figured we had plenty of time to get our food assignments done.  I was in charge of making gluten free stuffing, Chad was in charge of making the sweet potatoes...for two dinners!  We chopped and cooked and baked and soon realized that we were running out of time.  Tyke, luckily, kept himself well entertained running around the house in his walker.  It was one less thing to stress about.  Our food got done in time, we got ready for the day, and we headed to Mona for our two Thanksgiving feasts!

Our first stop was at Grandma Cheryl and Grandpa Terry's house to borrow the little kiddo tables (for dinner at Nanna's house).  We were quick to load them up and were quick to get on the road too.  A little too quick.  The heavy duty lifetime table flew out of the back of the truck and slid a good hundred yards across the pavement until it came to a stop in the weeds.  We backed up to get it and realized we'd unintentionally cleaned off all of the crayon on the table for Grandma Cheryl.  That poor table top was scratched up bad!  We hurried to Nanna's house and dropped the tables off at her doorstep and hurried to Mark and Jamie's house for dinner number one.  Dinner was at 1 p.m. at Mark and Jamie's.  A good portion of the Kay family was able to get together this year.  It was so fun getting to visit with everyone and snap a few pictures.  It's not often that we have a gathering that huge anymore.  I'd dare say there were close to 50 of us there!

After pictures we had a blessing and then dished up our food and headed to the garage,  yes the garage.  The garage works perfect for our huge family functions!  It may sound weird but it's surprisingly cozy and this year at Mark and Jamie's, Brandon had decorated.  He went above and beyond, you almost couldn't tell it was a garage you were gathering in.  We had a good visit the family and took our time, yet hurried, eating our meals.  We hated to eat and run but our second dinner was starting at 2 p.m. (it had gotten bumped up an hour earlier, which cut our time with the Kay fam short).

Dinner number two was at Nanna's house.  Everyone was able to come and we had a good time there as well.  We snapped a few family pictures outside before dinner time (it was nearly 50 degree weather!) and then headed in to work on the final touches of the meal.  The kids ate in the kitchen and the adults ate in the living room.  We had a good visiting and Tyke had a good time eating some more!  We watched a football game afterwards and visited for a long time.  It was almost 6 p.m. when we left and headed to Grandma Cheryl's.

We had to return the tables and I needed to figure out what our (my mom, my sisters and myself) game plan was for Black Friday!  The sales had already started (I think it's silly that they start them on Thanksgiving when it's called Black Friday and should stay on Friday!) but we sat around looking at the ads.  There wasn't much to be excited about but we decided to go anyway.

My mom and sisters headed north, and Chad, Tyke and I headed home.  I needed to gather a few things before going on a major shopping spree.  We had such a great day and it couldn't have been any better in any way, especially considering it was Tyke's first Thanksgiving!  We got to spend so much time with so much family and that's really what it's all about!!  We're so blessed to have such great families, and to have them all so close to us!  Happy 1st Thanksgiving Tyke!!!