Turkey, Bowling, and BYU

Of course, I'm always behind getting these things up on time but here is my official Turkey day post. This year my sister Susanne and her family came down from Vegas to spend Thanksgiving at our house. I offered to cook and Susi was happy to oblige me :). I actually like cooking a fancy meal and the entertaining thing so I love it when people actually let me do it. There's just something about taking a bunch of nothing (i.e. ingredients, etc..) and turning them into something (i.e. a yummy meal) that I just really enjoy. Susi has 6 kids and with our 3 it was a bit of a mad house so we decided to let them run wild at the park while the turkey cooked...Almost done.. Happy family....now that they have food on their plates. No matter where we go for Thanksgiving I'm usually the pie baker and I guess that applies when dinner is at my house as well :). I got a lot of experience baking pies when I was the in college and employed as the "baker" at Frontier Pies Restaurant in Provo. I learned a lot of little tricks that I'm able to put to use now. Even though everyone told me to just buy the pies....I couldn't do it! They have to be home made or I feel like a phony :). So...on the menu this Thanksgiving...apple, pumpkin, key lime, and cherry (for Mark as you can see...)

Letting the food settle...

The next day's for cast called for rain and there was no way we were going to stay inside all day with the kiddos so we ventured out to the local bowling alley for some good times. Nothing like 2 and 3 year olds with giant heavy bowling balls to throw around. A little chaotic but we had fun.

We headed home later that afternoon for the BYU - UTAH football game. Tami and her family came down from Temecula as well so the head count now: 6 adults and 12 kids....way outnumbered! We set some movies up for the boys in our room to hopefully distract them enough to keep them out of the game room. I wasn't really planning on them setting up camp in my bed but hey there were entertained.. For those of you that are BYU fans out there you know it was a real nail biter the second half and oh how I wish we had a camera rolling when BYU made that final touchdown in overtime to win the game. Mark and Brent began jumping up and down while simultaneously hugging one another...would have made a great picture! Meanwhile, Susi was showing her enthusiasm by flailing her arms in excitement as she double beheaded my willow tree figurine that was on the shelf. Nothing that a little super glue can't fix. Lots of bonding, fun memories and just a bit of chaos. Great weekend!