Thanksgiving!

What a wonderful Thanksgiving! Hudson was my pre-Thanksgiving prep helper.  I learned one thing from him and Easton, I should cook more meat around this house...or at least show it to them!  Hudson was very curious about this turkey we had in our fridge.  As he helped me cut off the packaging and revealed our 23lb little friend he decided he needed a name.  Well, ok I thought by all means, let's do it!  I gave Hudson the sole responsibility of naming him....Nixon Rudolph!  He also informed me that his birthday would be the next day, Thanksgiving!  Easton thought it was not quite right that his birthday be the day we eat him.  When Easton saw our little friend, Nixon, he looked at me with his curious eyes and furrowed eyebrows and said, "Is that a REAL turkey?".  I laughed and said, "yes Easton, did you think we would eat a fake one?" at which he replied, "like someone shot him?"  Oh boy!

We had 2 of Ray's brothers and 1 of his sisters here with their families.  This was the first year we have cooked Thanksgiving dinner here.  I have cooked a turkey before but never had the pressure of it being the Thanksgiving Turkey!  Well, I did some research and decided to brine our turkey.  I didn't anticipate the work/mess this brine was going to make!  On Tuesday when I made the brine  Ray was helping me by holding the bowl while I was pouring it from the pan, well with a combined effort (neither is admitting fault) I managed to pour part of the brine down his pants, onto his shoes, and all over the floor!  Woowee!  But boy does it get better.  On Thanksgiving morning, I had planned to go running (calorie deficit baby), so I figured I better get up early get the turkey all ready so I could come home and put it in the oven.  I realized that with our 23lb turkey in the bag and all the liquid it got rather heavy, so at 5am I softly whispered in Ray's face that I needed his assistance in getting the turkey out of the fridge.  To my surprise he quickly found his way to the garage fridge.  As I stood on the steps to the garage I felt a little uneasy about the tugging on the bag he was doing.   And my fears were soon put into reality as the bag ripped and turkey brine (now with a raw turkey juices!) came pouring onto Ray and all over our garage.  Nasty!  All I could do was ask how I could help.  I thought it was bad the first time, but now to have it happen again...what are the odds!?!?

Ray was a trooper, we managed to get the turkey into the house so I could get it ready and then he hosed off the garage floor at 5am on a 30 degree November morning.  Needless to say I don't know if the tasty turkey was quite worth the effort.

I always love Thanksgiving weekend, no pressures, just home with the family and lots of food!  Today, Sunday, when we got up Easton announced that he was going to have a busy day, he had to watch Spiderman 2 and Football.  Man the life of a 7 year old.  I also had to remind him he had 3 hours of church to fit in there too!

Well, bring on December we are ready for the season to begin!

A Set of Stitches

Well, we had our second set of stitches for our home.  It amazes me that in all the craziness that occurs on a daily basis the stitches always happen in the duller moments in our lives.  While watching television Hudson got up to get a drink and tripped over Easton and fell right to the corner of the coffee table.  Wowser...his head split right open!  I was gone at young women's and pulled into the garage right after it happened.  I was greeted anxiously by Canon and Easton who were quick to tell the news.   We went over to the hospital and boy was Hudson brave!  He received a shot and 5 stitches.  He was quite an example for his older brothers on how to be brave.  The boys all made a date of it and had chicken fingers and fries from the hospital cafeteria while we waited for the numbing gel to work.  

Halloween 2011

 Halloween Night 2011 - Canon (10yr) Scream, Easton (7yr) prison inmate, he decided this on his own.  Hudson (5yr) Bumblebee.

Picking our pumpkins at the neighborhood pumpkin patch.

This fall was so crazy with sports we didn't get to go pick our pumpkins until the Friday before Halloween!  Talk about leaving it until the last minute.  I guess it wasn't procrastination just no time.  Every time someone got home from sports practice it was too dark.  But it made for a fun activity over Fall Break.  

This was right before the school, Midas Creek Elementary, carnival.  What a fun night!  I have resigned myself to running a booth each year.  Canon of course had football practice so he went dressed as a FOOTBALL player!  

Last Monday was Halloween.   It always is a fun time of year with lots of activities to keep us busy.  This year Canon was the Scream, Easton was an inmate, and Hudson was Bumblebee.  This was the first year that Canon and Easton went trick-or-treating with friends.  They both went the Austin and his sister and friends.  Once they left I realized it was just Hudson.  The last few years I have stayed home and handed out candy, but I thought this year it would be fun to go around with him.  We started out, but he didn't dig going to the door by himself and asking for candy.  After walking down our street and him only wanting to go to one house, I figured I better find him a friend to trick or treat with.  After we found Courtney with Grace and Jane he quickly found the hang of things.  I was amazed at how long they all stayed out.  The older boys ended up going home to empty their sacks and then headed back out.  Hudson stayed out for 2 1/2 hours!  We walked the neighborhood from end to end.  It was a lot of fun.  The weather was gorgeous, 60 degrees!  We couldn't have asked for better.  But we woke up the next morning to rain/snow & cold.  Winter is here!