Thanks Given - Photo Shoot

After we had stuffed ourselves sufficiently with Thanksgiving food, we decided to take some photos outside. We followed the last vestiges of light to the front yard. Bad light or not, we laughed and goofed off and had a great time.

One of the aspects of the gospel of Jesus Christ which resonates profoundly with me is the knowledge that families will live together eternally.

Times like this, when we are able to gather all our kids around us, I feel a little glimpse of heaven.  

Even though we are more than a little goofy.

Joseph and Brandon doing "Shoulder Angel" a la the comedy show Studio C.

Bailey holding her "baby" brother. He didn't appreciate it.  

Acting out their favorite show - Dr Who

Look. . . Bailey and Aubrey can dance and flap their wings like birds - or something like that.

 

There is nowhere I would rather be and nothing I would rather be doing than helping with the development of these incredible people.

But wait . . . we can't leave Angela out of this love fest!  She took a lot of the pictures, but we captured a few of her and Brandon.  

 Including one with the siblings doing their favorite stalker-creeper- photobombing poses.  I love it!

 Happy Thanksgiving!

Hooray for Joseph!

We are so glad we have Joseph in our family! He keeps us laughing and keeps Dan and I young.

I got this email from Joseph's Primary teacher recently.  

Tiffany,
I have been subbing in Joseph's primary class the past 2 weeks and the class has been very rambunctious (to put it politely....) =).  Both weeks Joseph was the only student in the class who I wasn't constantly reminding to be reverent and to stop talking.  I was SO appreciative of Joseph's good example for the rest of the class!  Can you please tell him "Thank You!" for me???  
Leslie

Other random tidbits about our favorite 8 year old - 
1. He is a voracious reader and is getting ready to compete in his school's Battle of the Books. He likes to stay right on top of his schoolwork and his teacher also reports that he has a good sense of humor and is a good friend to everyone at school. 
2. He needs to be busy or he drives himself (and us) crazy.  He usually has some serious pent-up energy on Sunday afternoons, so we have him run laps around the house or run up and down the stairs.
3. He is a Minecraft and Lego fanatic. He loves to create new rooms in his Minecraft world.  I love the fact that we set a family timer on the Xbox, so it turns itself off after the agreed upon time - I don't have to police it!
4. He has SO many friends and wishes life was a perpetual playdate.

Joseph likes to help plan family home evening. One week in October he planned a lesson about missionary work, complete with an activity he put together on the whiteboard.

Then he had us take turns knocking and giving a door approach like missionaries.  It was very funny. Dan played the part a cantankerous man who reluctantly listened.  Then the tables turned and Dan and Joseph had to persuade ME to listen.

Joseph joined Cub Scouts in March and he is a happy and hard working Cub. More about that in another post. 

 In February he was missing both his front teeth for about a month. 

 He loves to steal my phone to take crazy pictures. 

 Bailey is a willing participant in these photos!

  Oh Joseph, we love you!

Thanksgiving 2013

Whew - it's over. We had quite a week.

Last Saturday Brandon and Angela flew to Portland and we spent four days with them before we were joined by Angela's parents (all three Mancis stayed at a hotel and came over to visit during the daytime). All week have have been in busy entertaining mode, and we had a big dinner each night before, including, and after Thanksgiving. It was a lot of cooking and a lot of dirty dishes.

But, we thoroughly enjoyed having company and visiting with new friends from Florida. It turns out the Mancis even knew my uncle and aunt when they lived in Kentucky. And they are in the same stake as my cousin in Florida. It's a small world.

Thanksgiving Dinner went off without a hitch. Actually, it was a pretty rousing success! I worked hard for a few weeks to get organized for the big day. I researched recipes and turkey preparation techniques ad infinitum.  I settled on the Thanksgiving turkey technique on my favorite cooking blog - ourbestbites.com. I altered it a bit by purchasing a brining kit and herb rub from Whole Foods rather than making mine from scratch. So, we brined and we rubbed oil and herbs all over and inside the cavities (isn't that a disgusting concept?) and between the skin and the breast meat of the bird. And, the most fun part was when I used a flavor injector to shoot a mixture of garlic, chicken broth, and butter into the turkey. It was seriously awesome to see the meat "puff up" with the extra fluids. Then we stuffed the turkey with onions, apples, and celery and cooked it in a bag using a digital cooking thermometer stuck into the breast meat. What we got for all this trouble? Turkey that was so moist it fell off the bird and intensely flavorful. Yes!

This was our entire dinner menu:

Thanksgiving Dinner 2013

Appetizers:

Cowboy Caviar

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Beverage:

Sparkling cider

Ice water

Main Event:

Turkey

Homemade cranberry-strawberry relish

Ham

Gravy

Praline Sweet potato casserole

Stuffing (add celery, onion, craisins, pecans, mushrooms)

Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes

Apricot Almond Sprouted Rice and Quinoa Saute

olives

Jello salad

Candied Walnut Salad with Honey Red Wine Vinaigrette

Honey Lime Fruit Salad

Corn

Lion House Dinner Rolls/Honey Wheat Rolls

Dessert:

Pies: apple, pumpkin, pecan

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pecan-Gingersnap Crust

Whipped cream

Another lucky break was the recipe for make-ahead mashed potatoes. It was sinfully delicious and we were able to make it a day ahead, keep it in the fridge, and then put it in a crockpot on Thanksgiving morning. By the time we ate at 2 p.m., it was hot and scrumptious and we didn't have to dirty the kitchen with cooking mashed potatoes right before dinner.  Actually, we made as many things as possible in the days before, and as a result Thanksgiving Day didn't feel overwhelming.  

As is always the case, Costco made our pies, and they did a fantastic job. I don't make pies. We did, however, make our favorite pumpkin cheesecake again - also from the Best Bites cookbook. Oh man, it is to die for - with the taste of pumpkin pie combined with cheesecake and white chocolate and gingersnaps and pecans. I love it, and I don't even really like cheesecake or pumpkin pie!  

For my own benefit in future years, I took some pictures of the binder I made with all the recipes and instructions. It was very helpful. 

Also, it really helped to prep everything possible two days before Thanksgiving. I chopped, measured, etc. and stored the ingredients in separate bags for each dish. That saved a lot of time when we put the dishes together on Wednesday and Thursday.

We also figured out what bowls we would need early on Thursday morning and labeled them. They sat on the counter until the dish was ready, which prevented any scrambling for the right size dish and also reminded me which food items still needed to be finished.

 Everybody had assignments in the days before Thanksgiving. Aubrey was in charge of setting the tables.

 
 

Bailey helped make quite a few of the dishes, including the cheesecake. Joseph helped make the jello. Dan was a big help with the turkey.

We posted a schedule for Thanksgiving Day and everyone helped complete the assignments and check them off.

The spread

 And the desserts

We ate at two tables in the living room/dining room. Joseph was extremely excited about the sparkling cider on each table - his favorite!

 
 How do you REALLY feel about the Thanksgiving dinner, Joseph??

 Dan stealing my food while I was smiling at the camera.

 So nice to have Brandon home this year.

So, there you go - our Thanksgiving. I'll write more about the rest of the week tomorrow!