Our Thanksgiving Week, Days Four and Five

Tuesday, November 20

On Tuesday morning I got some things done here at home - did our laundry, made a big pot of potato cheese soup, and stirred up a big batch of bran muffins.

At 1:00 we all met at Sowers Harvest Cafe for lunch.  Lori walked there from her office.  It was so full when we got there that we could not get a place where all 8 of us could sit together.   Sophie and Austin noticed that there were games there, so they sat at a two-top and played Upword as they ate their lunch.  Hunter was at daycare.  We had a good time, the food was delicious as always, and the staff is the best.

From there Lisa, George, and Sophie went on campus to reminisce and to meet the track coach.  Dick and I went to Berkey Creamery to buy some half-gallons of ice cream for our evening dessert.

Later everyone came here for dinner and the evening.

Sophie spent a lot of the evening at the piano.  

Grandpa played with Hunter.  He is starting to like drawing and writing now!  Dick said he was making M's.  

Of course the dogs got lots of attention too.  And the adults had some animated conversations as well as plenty of relaxing.

Wednesday, November 21

On Wednesday morning Dick and I hit the grocery store early.  Oh my goodness!  Such a time of looking for/remembering everything!!  I'm sure we had done 50 laps around Giant by the time we finally got to the cash register!

My projects that day were making Middle Eastern Sweet Potato and Chickpea stew for dinner and apple pies for dessert.  Ray, his girlfriend Ashley, and her kids Victoria and RJ arrived around noon.  They were glad for the leftover Potato Cheese soup and muffins from the evening before.  Ashley peeled apples for me.

Dick and Ray went to Walmart for some hunting stuff.  While they were gone I realized I had forgotten to get coconut milk for my stew, so I texted Dick and Ray to ask them if they were still at Walmart.  They were, so I asked them to get me a can of coconut milk.  Good grief.  It required at least four phone calls and multiple texts to get this accomplished!  I was trying to make pie dough, so trying to use my phone was a pain.  This is how our conversation ended:

Ray, always a comedian!

We all went over to Anthony and Lori's for dinner and fun and games.  Bjorn and Jess arrived too while we were there.   I had gotten a good laugh over Bjorn's text just as we were leaving for Anthony and Lori's:  "Leaving Manheim now.  God says 7:15."  I knew he meant GPS, but I just had to text back, "That's amazing!  I don't remember God ever telling me exactly what time I would arrive someplace."

What a fun and crazy evening we had!  Sophie took a bunch of pictures with my camera, especially close-ups.  

It was a noisy house.  Some were playing basketball and video games.

But even noisier was the game Heads Up that took place in the dining room!  Lots of screaming and yelling and laughing!

We finally hit the road for home.   So much to do when we got home!  I had put one of the turkeys in the oven before we left for Anthony and Lori's, and it needed to be taken care of.  There were also air mattresses to be blown up, sheets, blankets, and pillows to be gotten out and put in their places.  

As I carefully pulled the turkey apart, sliced the breasts, etc,  Bjorn, and especially Ray were standing nearby waiting for any bones, skin, etc I would be discarding that might still have some delicious morsels of meat on them.  You'd have thought they were starving, haha!  

I was thankful that the temp outside was very cold.  I put the turkey meat and broth in my big slow cooker and Dick put it in his truck overnight.  As you can tell, I do not serve turkey on a big platter in the middle of a table where it gets carved in front of all the guests.  We're not fancy like that.  I need my oven for so many other things on Thanksgiving day, so I like to get the turkey roasting done the day before.  Anthony always does another turkey in his smoker on Thanksgiving day.  

Well, that's all for this post.  So many more things to write about when I can find the time!