The Big Feast on Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving day, we get to be part of THE BIG FEAST! This is our 2nd year of joining in and we absolutely love it!  We absolutely love our church family and it's the perfect thing to do on this wonderful holiday. We join together for a delicious meal and help feed others.There are so many people out there that may not be able to buy/make dinner or who just may not have family around to enjoy it with, that is what the Big Feast is all about...coming together to serve each other and God! 

The kids love it because it is held at our sister church in Wright City.  It's called The Connection Community Church in Wright City and it is in an old church house.  We love old buildings and this one is fun for the kids to gather and run around, exploring the staircases and all around.  They were so excited to go back this year!

This year, we got to bring Danny with us. My sister had to work so it was perfect for him to come along and help out.  We decided to take some hot meals out around the town...we handed them out to people who were working, people in motels, anyone who wanted a yummy warm meal on Thanksgiving Day!  Our friend, Kathy, was driving and she even gave a young man a ride, all the way across town, just to help him out...she is such a sweetheart!  My favorite moment of the day, was when Danny got down on the ground and scooted underneath a semi truck inside of a garage, to talk to a mechanic working overtime...he offered him a hot meal, the mechanic was shocked and so happy!  He even directed us to the truck driver that was stranded by the broken down truck!  We had already delivered to him...lol!  It was a wonderful day!

Come back Buddy!

After decorating for Christmas, Blake did the honors of reading our Elf book.  Each year after reading the book, Buddy our elf, appears as our happy little spy guy! 

Buddy got much more adventurous this year, maybe because he trusts that the kids won't touch him now, because they love him so much?!?  Having Buddy around is wonderful!  Blake gets up before everyone, so he usually goes on a morning hunt for Buddy.  When Tay wakes, the first thing you hear is, Blake asking her if she wants to go find Buddy...they walk from room to room with Blake asking, "do you see him in here?", then they cheer together as she finds him!  I absolutely love that they wake up working together on something every morning, I sure miss Buddy when he goes back to the North Pole. 

Our Thanksgiving

I like for the kids to do their "hand turkeys", because I always loved doing them, their little hands grow so fast!  Blake also did Thanksgiving feathers at school, telling what he was most thankful for!

We celebrate Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday with the family because everyone is off from work and we can all be together.  Diana and Danny came over and played with the kids, Taylor got to play pretend store with Aunt Sissy, while Blake got to show Uncle Danny games on his Nintendo DS.  They so love to just play and I am sooo happy that Aunt Sissy and Uncle Danny will "just play"!  (I have a really hard time slowing down enough to do that...I so need to work on that!)

We made a very traditional dinner this year.  We had our specially brined turkey that turned out wonderfully, Billy's cornbread stuffing, Diana's sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, and warm rolls from Bob Evans!  This was the first year that I didn't make the desserts from scratch, but Costco's pumpkin pie and cheesecake was delicious!  Diana brought her famous "no bake cookies" and tons of other yummies.  Aunt Susie brought cookies, so we obviously had more than enough food! (i cannot believe that i didn't take pictures!)

After eating, the tryptophan kicked in and we all got lazy.  So lazy, in fact, that I don't remember the rest of the night! lol!  We did squeeze in some wii and a game of Headbandz...both always fun!

 

Family in Red