Thanksgiving- Wendell's Side

This year we had two Thanksgivings. The Proffitt family (my side) often does Thanksgiving on Friday to accommodate the other half of our respective families.

This year I got to host the Macnab family at our house. If you know me, you would know that this kind of thing would generally stress me out. But I surprised myself by actually feeling excited about it.

Compared to my family it was going to be a relatively small group. Just Wendell's parents, his two brothers, and their families. Unfortunately, Wendell's Grandmother passed away a week before Thanksgiving, and his mom and dad went to Minnesota to attend the funeral. Grandma, Grandpa, and Laura were sorely missed.

This small group meant I got to do a nicer grown up table with real plates:

Rachael and Kindyl just learned about setting the table and folding fancy napkins in Activity Days, so they were able to set the whole thing.

And I was able to attempt a couple of crafts for the kids. That would be daunting for the 30 kids that live in town on my side of the family, but the 8 kids we had over on Thursday were just right.



I had higher aspirations, but left it to the last minute. So I ended up letting the kids take over. Rachael covered the card tables with postal wrapping paper. They all cut out place mats out of scrap book paper. Then we made these lovely nameplates with rocks and alphabet pasta.(super fancy, I know;) And we had centerpieces of crayons and colored pencils.

(Emma, Kiara, Mitchell, and Brendon)

(Kaylee, Rachael,Dallin,Kindyl, and Brenley)

Even the older kids dug it. They were joking around and playing with each other. They ate for a few minutes and said, "can we start coloring now?" They are so funny.

Wendell's brother Dean and his family live in Payson, and we don't get to see them very often. (We see Dean a little more frequently because he works out of Sky Harbor airport)We love these guys. They have three boys and one little princess. These boys have always been sweet to our girls, and very respectful to adults. Their teenagers don't mind having an actual conversation with us, and aren't sulky and quiet. Emma is two years older than Brenley, and is very sweet to her also. We wish we could play with these guys more often.

(Emma teaching Brenley the age old tradition of placing olives on your fingers)


(I'm allowed to show Dean eating, because he never looks at my blog;)

I was concerned that with so few families cooking we wouldn't have enough variety of food. Laura had been sick, so we almost lost Grant's whole family. That meant a tiny Thanksgiving with just us and Dean and Pam. Pam, apparently, had the same fear. SO she brought almost everything but the turkey! This included: Lion House rolls, pistachio salad, pumpkin bars, spinich dip in a bread bowl, sweet potatoes, and olives(green and black).All we had to do was the turkey (which we pit roasted this year thanks to Wendell's friend/co worker Shane. Thanks Shane! It was fabulous)the stuffing, potatoes, and drinks. Pam took the hard stuff. Thanks Pam! We had a TON of food!

(Mitchell and Brendon playing the game cube in the pit/Mitchell's room)

(Emma holding Abigail)

(Dean playing Guitar Hero. Always a family favorite)

Luckily Laura started feeling a little better, and we got to play with their family too (And were spared the horror of store bought pumpkin pies;)

(Grant, Cade and Laura. This kid has the most awesome red hair!)

(Kiara and Abigail)

All in all it was way less stressful then it could have been. For one thing, Wendell's family has low expectations of me. They drop in on my messy house, and are even allowed in my bedroom when it is not clean. (My family is NOT allowed). Wendell did a lot of the cleaning, and the kids helped out as well. Wendell did most of my share of the cooking , and Pam and Laura made the hard stuff. This is my favorite picture:

Who doesn't love the sight of men working in the kitchen?! Wendell is doing the potatoes, and Dean is carving the turkey. Which consisted of lifting the breast off of the bone, placing it on a plate and cutting it. Love that pit roasted turkey. I've never seen anything like it. Yum.

We had a lot of fun. No stress. Loved watching the kids play with these cousins. We need to get up to Payson more often. And coax Grant's family into coming into Mesa to hang out with us. (They live in Gilbert)

Food, fun and family. Does it get any better than this?