One Big Thanksgiving!

 

   We'd had our big Thanksgiving dinner planned for over a month and had way too much invested in it to cancel so yesterday we had 6 families over for Thanksgiving dinner.  There were 7 kids and 13 adults and believe it or not, everyone fit in our tiny house.  The kids ran and played, the parents talked and laughed, I worried about everything (while trying to cook- lesson learned: never agree to cook the dishes that need to ready at the last minute when you're hosting a party). 
  The food was delicious, everyone had more than enough, the adults left happy, and the kids left tired, so we'll consider that a successful party! 

Pre-dinner action shots:

 All the kids knew each other and miraculously, they all played together really well.  I think every toy and book we own got played with.

 

 D making gravy

 

D smoked the turkey and it was delicious! 

 

Thanks for the salad Gina!

 

All of our counter space was used to serve food and it was all so good!

We never had the chance to put up the bounce house so after dinner, there was some bouncing on the couch

 

Fire and his friend E read with Uncle Paul and Auntie Mo

 

Because there were so many kids, we kept the decorations to a minimum, but turkey pumpkins that the kids made at school were put out and actually survived the night

 

D and Sky played "crabby daddy" as the party wound down

 

I finally had a chance to sit and snuggle with Sky before bedtime

 
  It was a great party and we definitely want to do it again next year.  The only thing that didn't go as planned was that we weren't able to have my niece and nephew over from Ebeye.  Because they're minors, they're not allowed on island without an accompanying adult and the officers at the checkpoint knew that Auntie and Uncle (the adult sponsors on their paperwork) were already on island because Uncle is in the hospital and Auntie is on a medical clearance so she can stay with him.  We were really looking forward to having them over to the house so they could play with the kids and have a big Thankgiving dinner.  I know that these things happen but I feel terrible about it, especially because we were going to take them to see Uncle before the party.  The Army has these rules for a reason but I wish, every once in a while, they could bend them.