Much to be Thankful for

This week we host the much anticipated visit of the Texas family, AND a return of the parents to our new abode.  Those of us who regularly hang around in WA were pretty pumped about these events, if you can image.  Nana and I would just site round ringing our hands in anticipation of those cute baby cheeks to pinch and the mountains of food that we would be eating.  And this visit did not disappoint.

Noel's family got in on Saturday night.  So I got to host a newly arrived Mom and Nana for dinner before the airport run that delivered the Texans to my house.  Tyler valiantly tolerated us hauling him all around Pike Place Market, and Seattle was in full spectrum grey on Sunday.  At least it was an honest representation of the city.  We also somehow talked Mom into hosting all the cousins for a potluck dinner in Sunday, which was a great excuse to get a ton of adults together to just watch a baby.  It's pretty funny how one little kid can completely steal the show at a dinner party. 

Even though I had to WORK at my awesome JOB, I think Noel and Jessie managed to enjoy themselves while they were here.  I know Tyler got to spend some super bonus Nana time with his Nana and Great-Nana, which would be the Nana Highlight of the whole holiday season if they weren't going to see him in Texas in a couple weeks.  And this was just the build up to the main event- TURKEY DAY. 

Even my mother-in-law came down to dive into the family food frenzy of Thanksgiving.  When you've got that many balls in the air, it seems safe to assume at list one thing is going to come out charred and inedible, but we managed to time every single thing perfectly- steaming hot dishes stuffing, green beans, Brussels sprouts (lovingly friend with bacon), stood next to a tower of mashed potatoes, creamy pools of gravy and the glow of a sweet potatoe pie (a pre-dessert tradition from Jessie's family).  I suppose if you were going to be nit-picky (and I'm not), the one casualty of the kitchen was the bird.  Don't get me wrong, after a day in the roaster, this bird was as tender and juicy as any bird you could dream of.  But to get that 18 pound monster of fall-off the bone good-ness onto the platter, well, it lost just a little in the presentation.  As they inevitably moved/dropped/exploded the bird onto the target platter, Jessie and Noel stood giggling over the "Norman Rockewell Perfect Turkey" in a way that reminded me of the Disaster of The Wedding Cake.  They are so cute.

My mother-in-law lead the charge to bake 3 universally awesome pies on Wednesday night.  I always assume that part of the motivation for cooking so many is that at least one should be ok.  Well, we felt like we won the pie lottery, because all of them were fantastic: sweet-meat squash/pumpkin, brown bag apple and West Virginia Pecan alike.  As Noel said, "I believe this pie is a triumph of human ingenuity and civilization." Wash it all down with a couple gallons of Martinelli's and it was a Thanksgiving for the record books.

Betty revived the old family tradition of going around the table to share something we can be thankful for- and man, I felt like we could go around the table a few times.  Great family, near and far, good health (especially those who just got out of their back braces), meaningful work that PAID us to spend the day cooking and eating, the means to live a comfortable life and share it with those precious people around the table... and this was before we tried the pie. 

Everyone is back on the road again, which leaves Matt and I to conquer the lion's share of the leftovers.  It's just one more thing to be grateful for.