Thanksgiving in Apex

Hi Dad,

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. These are the only cousins who are the same age as the children in our family. Even though they don't quite line up on age and gender, there is enough to go around. I think Levi and Truman are the closest yet they still have disagreements!

On Wednesday as April was driving I was helping my home-teachee Michael buy some boots and get some last minute things lined up. He has never been out of this state let alone on an airplane, so he is nervous and excited -- sort of like leaving on a pre-mission. I laughed when the Honey Baked Ham company dude tried to up-sell me on the ham that Dawna had reserved. I laughed as we were eating it and remember that he said the more expensive one would have less waste. The one I bought had no bone so there was virtually no waste!

April arrived about 2:00 and we took a walk up to the church before nightfall. Dawna had prepared a nice meal of enchiladas and Spanish rice. Afterwards we stayed up playing a new game "Five Crowns" (from the maker of "Sets"). The boys (Kurt included) had a blast playing Rock Band on the PS3. Caleb was too busy playing the PS2 console in the attic where he was sleeping that he missed Rock Band. I teased him when I told him that since Wednesday night is our night for Rock Band he had missed it and wouldn't have another opportunity until next Wednesday. He almost thought about staying but then remembered he has basketball next week. I made my bean salad while Dawna strategized the rest of the meal for the next day.

On Thursday April and I ran a loop in the neighborhood waiting for Kurt to join us. He had gone to the church and we ran into him as he was coming back. In the end, I think we all got in 3 miles. After I had showered up and helped get the turkey in the oven (all 22 lbs) I walked all the kids up to the Jaycees park next to the church. I had expected to use the soccer field to launch our model rocket, but some latino players were having a good scrimage, so we set up on a flat burm and launched it. The little kids were pretty excited -- some of them had never seen one go off. The wind was very still so the rocket came down both times within 50 yards of the launch area. The Andreason kids love Frisbee and had grabbed ours. We threw it around and kicked Levi's soccer ball for a while and headed back about 1:00 pm. By that time the kids were all really hungry so we tried to just give them a light lunch so that they would be ready for turkey in a few hours.

April made the mashed potatoes and the sweet potato casserole. Dawna made some yeast rolls with Miranda, and the boys started playing more Rock Band. Levi and Truman were having fun with Lego trains. It took a while to get the turkey carved and we sat down to eat about 4:30. Boy was it good. I only took one serving of each item, knowing that there were three kinds of pie. Caleb forgot about pie and was really upset when he wasn't feeling that good and could only get one small slice down. This was the first year that I can remember Olivia liking stuffing. As last year, Levi asked for ketchup for his turkey!

Friday we all left the house about 8:30 -9:00 in two waves: April, Dawna, and the older kids hit Old Navy, Kohls, and Target near our house, while Kurt, Clark, and the two little boys went to Southpoint's Target, Best Buy, and REI sales. Joshua, Olivia, and Aeden stayed home and watched Star Wars -- they are getting all pretty self-sufficient! They called about 11:00 saying they were starving, so I told Olivia to pull out the turkey leftovers and heat up what she wanted. After an awesome lunch of leftovers, we April and I went to Dicks for a few more items, and Kurt and Dawna and all the kids walked down the new spur of the greenway trail that connects to a park. We met up there and Caleb and Kurt played basketball, the little kids, Josh, Aeden played tennis while Dawna and I traded off playing with them. Miranda and Maddie read on the park bench. We all headed home about 4:30 as Levi and Truman started melting down.

April had rescued the turkey carcass and boiled it down for a turkey soup, reminiscent of Thanksgivings past. I made a double batch of cornbread from scratch with a little improvization. Between the 13 of us we ate every bit! After a sprited few rounds of Gestures people started dropping off so here we are, ready for bed.

Best quotes:

Levi explaining how Luke Skywalker was going to use his "forest" to get his "life saver" out of the snow and cut himself out of the ice creature's cave.

Caleb playing 'Gestures' trying to get people to guess "ling-guree" by pointing to his chest/brassier area.

Happy Thanksgiving!

-clark