Thanksgiving 2013

This year for Thanksgiving we were in Logan with the Ridings, Kirbys and my parents.  With just 3 out of the 8 kids in my family in attendance, the holiday seemed almost quiet with just 8 grandkids running wild instead of the entire hoard of 17.  Here were some of the highlights of the 4 days we got to spend together.

1) An early morning Turkey Shoot with nerf guns.  Living up to his redneck stereotype, Burke instructed everyone on hunter's safety and a skeptical Lydia surprised everyone by pegging the bird first.  

2) Thanksgiving dinner prep and promptly devouring the delicious dishes - yum yum yum!

3) Dad's annual letter of gratitude to a person in the family.  This year he picked Zakia.  It was a beautiful letter speaking of Zakia turning twelve, receiving the priesthood and beginning the transformation into manhood.  I too have seen enormous changes in Zakia throughout the past year and was glad Daddy was able to word the change so beautifully.  

4) The kids completely convinced that gnomes live in Mom and Dad's garden and only come alive at night.  Observe Lydia referring to "Ella Enchanted" for gnomish vocabulary words to try out on the gnome statues.

5) Playing with cousins from the park, to the disc golf course and around the house.

6) That terrific moment where Gideon, the reigning champ of Wii Resort's dueling game, was finally dethroned by yours truly.  And then he whipped me soundly 3 more times!  But I was triumphant for one brief moment!  Please observe the little girls with unconnected remotes thinking they're playing too, Emmett's pure delight, my smug posture.  So candid!

7) An outing to a matinee showing of "The Nutcracker" while the menfolk hit up the USU football game.  Daphne was enraptured from the first notes to the last.  She especially fixated on the part where the Nutcracker Prince gets broken.  It took several scenes for me to reassure her he was ok and to move on with the rest of the story line. :)

8) Just being with my the people we love so dearly!  My favorite moments were probably just watching Daphne thoroughly enjoying her cousins, sitting around visiting at night after the babies went to bed and our "White Friday" at the temple doing work for names of our own ancestors (mentioned in my last post).  Also, Burke loved playing basketball at the church and we both were addicted one night to "Little Alchemist", a sweet game Dan introduced us to that was so fun.