Thanksgiving Recap Part 1

Wow! Is it possible that our Thanksgiving dinner was already over a week ago? Or that we'll be heading out on our Christmas adventure in just over 3 weeks? It must be, so here's the brief (or not-so-brief) recap of the Thanksgivingpalooza weekend. May it bring back fond memories for those of you who were there and inspire insane jealousy in those that were not. (Then maybe you'll come next time!)

We kicked off the palooza when Laura & Jonathan arrived on Thursday morning (a week before Thanksgiving Day, but only 2 days before OUR Thanksgiving Day). Iowa put out the welcome mat with a dusting of snow and cold temps, so they got a great picture of what we have to put up with in the winter. We adjourned to the house so we could have sandwiches, and then the Professor & I had to go back to work (boo on work), but Dad came over and stayed for a bit before the travelbugs took a well-deserved nap.

Oh, and they finally got to meet Nickey - the largest cat anyone has ever seen apparently. Now they know we really aren't kidding when we talk about how ginormous she is!

Thursday night was laid back - we had the obligitory pork chop dinner. You've really never had pork chops until you've had Iowa pork chops. They're like white meat steak - it's awesome. So we make all our guests have pork at least once while they're here. Yum. We had our small group over that night, and then we watched Survivor.

Still with me? Friday was a work day for the Professor and me, but I cut out early to hang out at home. Dad came over and we went to Target and then to dinner at a Mexican place in Cedar Rapids. The Prof met us there for dinner. After dinner we went to a minor league hockey game. Go Roughriders! I think it was a first for all of us, but we definitely had fun. The home team won in overtime, so that's cool. Except we couldn't get the "Hey! You suck!" song or the Chicken Dance out of our heads for awhile. If you ask, maybe L or J will demonstrate the chicken dance for you. I think it's a midwestern thing, so you true southerners may not have a clue what I'm talking about. And that's OK.

The Shollenberger clan arrived late Friday night. Yay! They came over on Saturday to find a turkey defrosting in the sink and the dinner preparations well under way. Laura laughed at me because the day before I sat down and made an oven schedule to make sure everything would be done by 6:30 - my arbitrarily set dinner time. We made the pies (coconut cream and banana split) and the Vernor's salad the day before, so all we had to do on Saturday was cook the turkey and make the dressing, scalloped corn, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and rolls. No biggie, right?

It actually wasn't bad. Carrie and Laura pitched in to help with everything from snapping green beans to mashing potatoes, so it all went pretty smoothly. I had large chunks of the day where I felt like I ought to be slaving over the stove, but really just sat and watched football. The Michigan/Ohio State game was on, which was one of Jonathan's two requirements for the weekend - but it was actually a really good game. I don't remember who won though... but I'll bet Jonathan does!

Anyway, on Saturday the Professor gave the Shollenbergers the grand tour of our little town and we all met at the scrumptious Lincoln Cafe for lunch. Mmmm... portobello mushroom soup. Anyway, we got to hang out and talk over lunch and for lots of the day actually, which is pretty much the whole point of having company, right?

So after a lazy early afternoon with many naps taken by all (except miss K who was just so excited she had to be taken back to the hotel to get her nap in) the cooking frenzy resumed.

Neale and Gayle arrived in the afternoon - just in time to help peel potatoes! Dad arrived too with pumpkin cake and sweet potatoes in tow. Yum to both. We managed to get it all cooked and ready, and had to push the furniture back in the living room to set up card tables for us all. We got out the china and wiped off the dust and then it was turkey time!!

I've never planned a meal for this many people before, but I'm pretty pleased overall with the result. I don't think I could have pulled it off without all the helping hands - so thank you helping hands! It actually was pretty fun. It was so cool to have almost all of our families together. It really makes me wish we all lived closer together so we can do this more often. Either that or that someone will invent and market teleportation so we can get together whenever we want.

Whew! This is getting really long, and I'm only half through the weekend. I think I'll stop for now and pick up with part 2 later. Hooray for big family get togethers!