Thanksgiving Festivities

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with our family: Great-grandma, Grandma, Uncle Dennis & Aunt Becky and there kids.  The day started off with food preparations (isn't that how it always starts!).  We prepared all our food here at our home, then transported it across to Uncle Dennis & Aunt Becky's house.  We got there around 2pm, and spread out the feast.  We had SO MUCH food, I think we could've had double the amount of people!  It was all very delicious.

Grandpa's honorary place at the dinner table.

 It was our first holiday without Grandpa.  Very different not to have him around, telling stories and giving joy with his awesome smile.

Rowena made these cute 'Turkeys' out of candies and chocolate.  They were tasty.

A plate full of delicious food.  Thanks to all of the cooks and bakers!

Rowena

Rowena also made each name cards, which were set around to mark everyone's place at the tables.  You did a great job Rowena!

Abby's place, Rowena's handiwork.

The guy's table

The guys table was full of discussions about politics and the such.  Many interesting things to talk about.

The girl's table.

We girls had a fabulous time over at our table, joking, laughing and visiting about many different things.

The 'adult' table.

The adult table may have been a little less noisy, but I'm sure they had a good time of visiting, as well.

Abby, the main photographer for this event.

Rachel

Jaden (and the salad dressing!)

We played several rounds of Foosball. 

After eating all of that delicious food, we all felt like taking a nap.  But, we resisted the urge, and instead decided to play a few rounds of Foosball.

Grandma even joined in on the action!

We all had a blast with this, but I think Grandma especially enjoyed it.  She challenged the other adults to play, but they all declined the offer. =)

The opposing team: Johanna, Jaden and Caleb.

Wow!  There's a lot of movement in this game.

Right before dusk, we decided to head over to a local park and play some baseball and Ultimate Frisbee.  We got there right as the sun was setting, and so we only played baseball for a few minutes, then it got too dark.  But, we moved over to the large, well-lit parking lot and played a game of Ultimate Frisbee.  A shutout was accomplished, (I won't say which team was shut out), and we all went back to the house with lungs full of freezing cold air.  It was in the lower 40's with a cold wind.  But, it was so fun!   

Jaden

Jaden played Play Mobile with Johanna and Rowena.  He fun playing with the farm he built.

Cousin-friends: Johanna and Rowena

Johanna, Abby, Rowena and Rachel played a round of Apples to Apples.

The view from the "second deck".

Abby & Rowena

Dad enjoyed reading one of Uncle Dennis' many books.

Aunt Becky plays a piece of music.

Technology is wonderful.  We were able to Skype our Uncle Jim in Germany.

Uncle Dennis shows Dad a small part of his collection of Theological books.

Skyping.

Uncle Jim with his Thanksgiving hat on.

I was listening intently to Mom and Uncle Dennis' discussion on Physics.  Way over my head...

And, here's the physics discussion.

Rachel also played a few pieces for us on the piano.