Thanksgiving 2007

All the boys walking to McDonald's.

Travis and Grant.


Hayden and his classic serious pose.


Blake and Melanie.

The boys alway love climbing on McDonald.


Grant added three or four centerpieces that Regan helped him make.


Blake helping Mom with the mashed potatoes.

Cute Hayden falling asleep on Regan.


How do you like these fancy butter pats ala Fionna?

What better way to start a dinner than with shrimp cocktail

Grant and Blake wanted to eat a Thanksgiving picnic on the kitchen floor.


Here's everyone minus Dave (taking the picture)

Cute Hayden is sweet at pumpkin pie.


The boys playing in the leaves.

Hayden's first Thanksgiving was spectacular. We started it like we always do at McDonalds. The boys loved it. They ran all over the place, and barely ate anything. Melanie did it smart, and ordered a small breakfasts for us because we knew from experience that when given the option between food and toys, Grant and Blake will pick toys 9 out of 10 times.

After McDonalds, we were forced to go to the grocery store to buys some rolls because of our crappy bread-maker. Of all days, it chose this one to go kaput. Melanie ran in real quick, and we went home to watch the Thanksgiving Day parade. Grant watched about 10 seconds of it and then disappeared into the basement. Blake tried to follow him, but got distracted by some of the singing and dancing and ended up watching a lot of it. Meanwhile, Melanie sneaked into the kitchen and prepared our green bean casserole and amazing pretzel-crusted cranberry and cream cheese jello recipe.

At about 2pm, we went over to our friends, the Burdicks. We ate the most amazing Thanksgiving dinner, as they always are amazing. The turkey and stuffing were great. We also had a pre-dinner shrimp cocktail.

After dinner, we watched some of the Cowboys - Jets game while the kids played with Regan. We thought we were going to die of boredom, then Dave changed the channel to "Guys and Dolls" on Turner Classic Movies and it, surprisingly, was more a little more interesting, but still boring.

The kids went outside to play in the leaves and then went to the park. We ate our vodka-crusted pies, and they were divine. I definitely recommend a little alcohol baked in the crust, just keep your kids away from the pie dough. Personally, I think the lemon meringue tasted the best.

After pie, the kids went to bed. We played the Burdick's "Ticket to Ride" European edition a couple of times before going home. If you like the American version of the game, you ought to try the European one. There's a few twists to some of the rules that make the game way interesting.

We finally got home at around 11pm. What a night! It'll be hard to top this one next year.