A bad dinner experience to precede a good dinner experience.
The day before hosting a big event is busy busy busy, I am good at it and yet I am not good at it. I am get myself so worked up inside, and that is not good. I also always seem to be rushing at the last minute no matter how hard I try to plan ahead. On Thanksgiving Eve Mallerie and Ava were dutifully helping me in the kitchen. I had hopes of all of us dining at Kneaders that night because my kitchen could not crank out any more food! As we were getting ready to go Graham said his stomach hurt. "Like you might throw up?" I asked. "Maybe...." Matt really wanted all of us to go though and convinced Graham that his stomach did not in fact hurt, he just needed some dinner. I assured everyone that there was plenty for me to do at home and would willingly stay behind with Graham. Matt insisted we ALL go. As soon as we got in line to order though, Graham persisted, "My stomach really hurts. I think I am going to throw up." I hurried out to the car to wait with him. It was locked. I had baggies inside the car but they were not going to do us any good. Somehow someone noticed our absence and came to unlock the car. We made it in time for him to use the bag....My appetite was waning by the minute. So now instead of being at home with Graham I was waiting in the car while the family dined inside. I took the vomit bag to the outside garbage can and saw them happily chatting inside by the warm fire. I especially noted Mallerie's tilted back head laugh. This while I was trying to cram the vomit bag into the already full trashcan outside. Let me just tell you, this dining experience was not ideal for me, but poor Graham. I was so relieved to see he was back to his old self the next morning.
And now on to happier things... I will let pictures tell a thousand words for Thanksgiving 2016:
Matt won this cooler at a work function. It had a big BUDWEISER sticker across the front, which he was relieved, peeled right off. As soon as I saw this massive I thought, "Thanksgiving drink bar!" We had flavor squirts for the seltzer. I thought that was impressive enough, till Graham discovered, "Hey this thing lights up!" It sure did. It looked like it was going to blow smoke and take off during dinner.
I was grateful that my girls have made rolls so many times through the years that they already had the dough rising by the time I came out to make the glaze for the orange rolls.
Hard to believe that two years has gone by since we celebrated Thanksgiving together when the surprise announcement of Cacique baby number two had us giddy with anticipation. Matteo is now a beloved part of the family.
Big a brother Gio
Little sister Lucy
None of us had the guts to cut into this very odd sweet potato (if you zoom in you will see whiskers).
Best meal of the year.
Giuseppe took the roll of judge very seriously. Callie took her task as scorkeeper equally as seriously, so she wasn't very thrilled to be shown the proper way to make tally marks.
The girl cousins before Kei had to dash to the in-laws and try to pound down more turkey.
How could listening to T-Swift not lead to a spontaneous dance party?
It seemed Katrina could name the song by the sound waves in the air before the song even began.
This skill was her key to victory.
Nobody could be sad about defeat for long because finally it was time for PIE.
The winner is once again...Peanut Butter Pie!
