Thankful for Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving.  It is a joke among many that Christmas is creeping up on Thanksgiving.  My siblings even have  "Save Thanksgiving" shirts.  I'm proud to admit that I didn't scratch my Christmas itch and just had fun celebrating Thanksgiving.  It helps that Thanksgiving was at my house this year and that I'm pregnant so I can only concentrate on one thing at a time!
Well, it seemed like it would be a pretty daunting task to have almost 30 people over at my house, but my mother is Super Mom and makes preparing a giant meal for that many people seem super easy.  I tracked down tables and chairs thanks to people in my ward.  I also bought the 23 lb turkey.  It felt kind of crazy buying a turkey that is almost the same weight as my toddler!  Then I basically cleaned up my house the best I could before my family got here.
My mom, dad, Mel Mel, Will and their dog, Beckham arrived on Wednesday.  They stayed at our house.  Laila was SO excited for them to get here.  She kept talking about it- especially Beckham coming.  My mom and I went out grocery shopping which was quite packed but I think we did pretty good at getting in and out!
Turkey Thursday came nice and sunny!  The boys went and played in the ward Turkey Bowl football game.  My mom and I got started in the kitchen. (I really feel like it was my mom doing the work and me just trying to help any way I could.)  Thankfully, my aunt was making a ham and my cousins were doing the mashed potatoes and rolls so there wasn't much conflict with oven time.  We got the turkey in the oven right in time for it to be finished right at 2 PM- our target starting time.  Well, some time near the end, the oven somehow got turned off!  We got it turned back on when the oven had gone from 350 to 169 degrees!  Little scary, but the turkey turned out AMAZING!  So maybe we discovered a super awesome trick to cooking a turkey? Who knows.  Watch for it on Pinterest. HA!
Around 2 PM, my Grandma & Grandpa Cook got here with my Aunt Kelly and her husband John.  Then came my cousins, Tammy, Doug and Mary Ellen with their spouses and kids.  My Uncle Jeff also got here providing the last needed table!  It was pretty great to see 3/4 of my grandparents' kids at my house.  (My other uncle is serving a mission in Zimbabwe!) I had no idea if we would all fit, but everything turned out so well.  I really loved having my house filled to the brim with family!

^Tables all ready to go

^Food time! (& Michael's finger & reaching baby hands)

^Eating time!

^Our first Thanksgiving Regatta with handmade and decorated newspaper boats

^Getting the boats to the other side

^Sneaky selfies on the phone

^After dinner, we all got in our family circle to say what we are thankful for.

I'm definitely grateful to be apart of such a great family.  I'm thankful that we were able to get so many of us together.  Many were missing and missed, but I'm grateful for all those who did come. I am definitely blessed with many incredible family members.  

The next couple of days I got to spend with my little family along with my parents and two of my siblings.  We enjoyed lots of leftovers and the beautiful AZ weather.  The weekend was definitely a great reminder how "because I have been given much, I too must give."