Hosting Thanksgiving

We intended to spend Thanksgiving in Spokane this year. Our plans changed when we learned that my mom has breast cancer. The doctor operated to remove the cancer on Tuesday, November 23. Being away from my mom during this time was unfathomable. We cancelled our WA trip. My sister Jill dropped everything and flew in from MA to be here too. One perk of this cancer news is that all of my siblings were able to be together for Thanksgiving which was special! 

My kind mom tried to suggest that she would be up for hosting Thanksgiving dinner 48 hours post-surgery. I shut her down and volunteered to have everyone over at our new house. 

I had so much help with the food! I didn't even have to make the turkey! (Although, that didn't stop me from getting my free turkey at Winco after spending over $100 in groceries.) My brother Jeff smoked brisket which was incredible. Apparently brisket is popular because he had to go to several different stores to find some. We all appreciated his sacrifice to make this! I think he said he was up checking on the meat 4x throughout the night. Can brisket become a new tradition? 

I made: Reese's Peanut Butter Cup cookies, Pumpkin Bread, Deviled Eggs, Green Beans, Mac and Cheese, and Mashed potatoes. If you're looking for a fatty, but spectacular mashed potato recipe, try this one: Unhealthy Potatoes. I think cooking the potatoes in chicken broth makes a difference. 

Chris took on the turkey! He even did a practice turkey earlier in the week. It paid off-- the turkey was very moist. Joel was in charge of drinks and he went all out! The drinks took up an entire table. The homemade strawberry lemondae was divine. Strawberry Lemonade Recipe. (Minus the basill) Jill made sweet potatoes, a Thanksgiving classic that the Dennings don't always have. Lindsey made so much food! Her pies were scrumptous! Lemon typically isn't my thing, but after eating Lindsey's lemon pie, my mind has been changed. Recipe Here. Mentioning every dish that we had would be impossible. 

It was truly a feast. We had oodles of leftovers! My siblings were teasing me because I instantly started making shepherd pie casseroles with all the remaining food. (The Dittos taught me that.) Jessica even came over and decorated the tables for me!  We had an abundance of flowers, due to lots of well wishes for my mom. My siblings assisted so much and I couldn't have done it without them! I'm a newbie at hosting Thanksgiving, and found myself frantically texting my mom questions like: "Do you heat up cranberry sauce?" Even with so much help, I was very worn out by the end of the day. I have a new appreciation for everyone who hosts Thanksgiving! 

In the past, my mom has had us do some type of service on Thanksgiving. I wanted to make sure that happened this year. With the help of everyone, we were able to make Afghan refugee kits. We put together 30 kits. Some were cleaning kits which included: all-purpose cleaner, disinfectant wipes, sponges, etc. Some of the other kits we made were paper-goods kits which included: toilet paper, paper towels, ziplocks, etc. We donated the items to Lifting Hands International. 

Something else that comes with hosting is entertaining. I looked into various holiday games. We ended up playing a "Price is Right Thanksgiving" version. Apparently, I made it too hard. We played "Price is Right" rules, and nobody could go over the total price. Everyone did, but Chris was within a couple of dollars. Uno, and Thanksgiving Charades were popular with the kids. It was also wonderful for my kids to discover that they still do have a trampoline. Thank you Simon and Esther for actally wanting to jump on it. My parent's did a craft with the children and made turkeys out of apples, marshmallows, and gumballs. The turkeys turned out cute! 

After the surgery, we learned that my mom's cancer is more advanced than the doctor expected. I was grateful to be in UT when we got this news. Thanksgiving was a nice distraction.

I have so much to be grateful for. It was touching to listen to everyone share what they're thankful for this year. I talked about how blessed I feel that we moved. I love living so close to family and it helps that our house is beautiful. Obviously, we're all extremely grateful for my mom and that her cancer was found early-on. Someone at the dinner table brought up how thankful they are that COVID and politics haven't broken our family apart. Amen to that! Now that I have my first time hosting Thanksgiving under my belt, bring on more! I don't know the next time that all of us will be together for Thanksgiving, so I will look back on this year fondly.

Frozen

Our "Frozen" tickets, dated for May 2, 2020, were finally used on November 13, 2021-- a year and a half later. Because of the pandemic, the show got post-poned.

My mom surprised the girls with tickets to see "Frozen" at Eccles Theater in Salt Lake. When she purchased the tickets, Izzy was a tiny baby, so she didn't get Isabelle a ticket. It worked out that Isabelle was able to go. Watching Isabelle's reaction to the show was the best part of the evening.

Mom, Alexa, Jessica, Grandma Langlois, Izzy (in her Anna dress), 

me, and Grandma Lynda

The show started at 8:00pm which is quite late for a 2-year-old. It's pretty late for me too. We had big plans to get Izzy to nap before going, but she didn't agree. I didn't know how she would do being up so late. I couldn't have asked for a better behaved toddler. No big meltdowns, bathroom incidents, or heavy eyes. She stayed awake for the entire thing! We didn't get home until 11:45pm. She definitely snoozed in the car.

Isabelle sat on laps for the majority of the show, even though she had her own seat with a cushy booster. I didn't mind having her on my lap because I got to experience her reactions firsthand. She was so excited. She exclaimed loudly in the middle, "Is that magic!?" When asked what her favorite part of "Frozen" was, Izzy said, "the dancing!" No surprises there. She also wanted to know if Elsa and Anna were real. Before the show, Isabelle went on a walk and saw the orchestra pit. Izzy thought that there were ghosts and monsters hiding there. She insisted on going back to look at the orchestra pit again during intermission, just to be sure. 

They went all out with the show! I was extremely impressed! Gloves went flying, dresses were changed in the blink of an eye, and during "Let it Go" there was basically a full-on light show. Someone was even dressed in Sven's reindeer costume. Boy, that must have been hot. Olaf lived up to his part well. I guess they had plenty of time to make this show so spectacular during the months of cancellations. Their hard work showed.

I drove. Why am I telling you this? Well, you see... there was a parking garage incident. I can laugh about it now, but in the moment, it was stressful. As soon as we turned into the parking garage, I noticed a steep hill. It wouldn't have mattered if we didn't have to stop multiple times on the hill due to traffic. Can you see where this is going? I noticed that some of the cars ahead of me started to roll backwards everytime they started going. Well, the same thing happened to me. We rolled back each time I took my foot off the brake. It was scary!

At first, the car behind me was extremely close. They learned their lesson and gave me more room from then on. I realize now that I should have used both feet on the pedals to prevent the rolling from happening. I'm sure you don't believe me, but I actually can drive a stick shift. I'll admit, if you were neraby, you definitely heard my tires squeeling. You could probably even hear my heart pounding for that matter. 

By the time we made it to the top of the never-ending-hill, the worker chipperly asked how I was doing. I pretended I was good but inside my head I was thinking:"Sir, I'm shaking and nearly plowed backwards down this abrupt hill. Can you tell that my arm is trembling as I hand you the credit card to pay to park in this autrocity?" Whew, the hill is over.

What an enchanting evening. The parking garage incident couldn't even ruin it. Thanks, Mom! It was worth the long wait. Izzy is now going to have an extremely high bar for plays.