Thanksgiving 2024

We went to Thanksgiving dinner at Grandpa and Darla's house this year, and what a treat that was! We've been in charge of Thanksgiving dinner for many, many years in a row so not being in charge was quite a relief. Of course, Andrew kept busy in the kitchen experimenting with bread and pie (our two major assignments) and Miriam made a big ol' vat of cranberry sauce. But that's all we had to do. 

Dishes were a lot more manageable. And our leftover status is on point.

GG came for dinner as well. We ended up with ham, zucchini stuffing boats, frog eye salad, potatoes...and some other things I'm probably forgetting. It was a delicious feast and the company was wonderful. 

We ate dinner soon after arriving, though first Phoebe had to chase big Titus around to show him little Titus. He kept running from her and then every time he'd decided to give in and greet her she'd scream and run away. But eventually they managed to stand side-by-side.

Here's Benjamin with Titus:

After dinner we took a little post-prandial stroll, a rather engrained habit for our family, having gone through four pregnancies with gestational diabetes. Grandpa heard about it on NPR, though, and wanted to give it a go. Essentially, exercising after eating allows your muscles to use up the glucose in the blood stream without even needing insulin to shepherd it along, as it were. We're more relaxed about post-prandial strolls these days but I was religious about them when I was pregnant. 

Breakfast? Walk.

Lunch? Walk.

Dinner? Walk. 

That or there was a series of aerobics that I would do—arm circles and things like that. Anything to warm up your muscles and raise your heart rate a little bit will do! It works wonders for your blood sugar level. 

Anyway, we joined Grandpa for a post-feast "constitutional" and took Titus along for a walk. GG took this picture of our group:

Of course, we just came home to pie...so it's not like our walking really accomplished very much.

This year's pies were pumpkin (2), yucky pumpkin (2), pecan (1), apple (1), banana cream (2), and some Atlantic Beach tarts (some number). Am I missing any? I can't remember.

Here's a close up of the maple leaves (which Miriam cut out by hand) and some sugared cranberries:

After pie we played a rousing round (or 5) of Happy Salmon, which I think counts as a post-prandial workout because, boy, were we hopping (and screaming and slapping)! Once we were all out of breath, we settled down for some quieter games and then...Andrew, Rachel, Phoebe, and I left to head home, leaving the rest of the kids to have a sleepover. 

They watched the fifth Harry Potter movie (since Alexander recently finished the book).

We hopped in the van and took off toward home. 

Five minutes into the drive, Phoebe (who had just gone potty) announced that she needed to go potty. We told her we'd look for a place. Because surely there would be a place, right? Wrong!

First, we were driving on somewhat rural roads, so there was no where to stop. And then when we reached city limits again everything was closed! Even grocery stores that are open nearly 24 hours a day are closed on Thanksgiving!

And the first gas station we came to was under renovation and so had no toilets available!

We finally found a gas station and...Phoebe was much happier after that. How she managed to stay awake the whole way home I will never know. But we all know she has a talent for not sleeping so it shouldn't really come as a surprise.

All in all it was a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Now I need to get out of the break mindset and back into the "writing finals" mindset...