Thanksgiving Recap (2023)

It would be abnormal if I was writing this post the day after Thanksgiving, wouldn't it?  You know, before everyone has moved on from that holiday and has started prepping for Christmas.  But I think getting this on the blog less than a week after is pretty good for me these days!

For Thanksgiving dinner this year we had the three youngest of our five boys and their families with us, which was wonderful.   Three of our sons (#'s 2, 3, and 4) are practically neighbors here in VA, but our baby made the trip all the way from the Nashville area with his wife and absolutely adorable almost 9-month-old little girl.  I am not exaggerating when I say that she just might be the sweetest baby alive.  She's all breathy baby talk, smiles, and giggles, and she rarely cries.  She's an angel and a complete joy, and that's not just a biased Grammy talking.  This sweet little family came and stayed with us for a week-long visit, and it was much too short.

Our firstborn could not be with us.  He and his wife are out in Wisconsin with their six kids, awaiting the birth of baby #7--which should be any day now.  They spent Thanksgiving with her folks, who live just over an hour away from them now.  And our second-born (who lives less than an hour from us) was  celebrating with his wife's family, who has a giant (60-plus people!!!) extended family Thanksgiving extravaganza every year.  (We usually have a "second Thanksgiving" get-together with them a day or two later.)

I LOVE getting things all ready for any big family celebration.  I enjoy cleaning and decorating the house (I decorated for Christmas before Thanksgiving, minus the tree, because our baby will not be with us this year at Christmastime and he loves him some decked halls), setting the table, menu planning, cooking whatever I can ahead of time.   Prepping for family parties might just be one of my favorite activities.  We almost didn't host this year, because son #3's wife was going to...but with five active young kids and about a million things going on in their life right now, she and our son decided that maybe they'd do it next year, if we didn't mind hosting again.

We didn't mind at all.

This was our seventh Thanksgiving since our big move to VA, and all seven times, three or four of our boys and their ever-growing families have come to our house to celebrate it.  (During the four years son #1 lived nearby, his gang always joined us.)  It's overwhelming--that is, it's overwhelming how blessed we are to be here, and how much fun it is to be able to make our home a meeting place for our loved ones.  This year, we had ten adults (including one daughter-in-law's parents, who are local) and ten children.  I decided to use paper products and disposable plastic utensils but I may go back to using real china and silverware next year.  I think the joy I get from using pretty dishes outweighs the hassle of extra clean-up afterward.  Some things are just worth it.

Anyway, we used paper and plastic.  And we set up the food buffet-style.  Most of it had been made ahead of time.  A few days beforehand, I made a pumpkin pie and a chocolate peanut butter pie, and on Wednesday I got the Oreos crushed up and the creamy part mixed for our family favorite "Heavenly Dirt" trifle.  On Wednesday I also cooked two stuffed turkeys, setting aside the drippings to make gravy on Thursday, and our youngest son's wife made a berry crumble pie (it was so yummy!).  That meant that on Thanksgiving day, the only things left to do were to make mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and gravy, and to put together the trifle layers.  I am a huge fan of doing as much ahead of time as you can.  We always cook our turkeys the day before now, let them rest, then carve them and store them in the fridge soaked in chicken broth.  And our turkey is always so moist!!

I call this picture of me and my set table "The Calm Before the Storm." 

I don't know what I'd do without chafing dishes!

In our family, gravy is LIFE.

Even on paper plates, the meal looked and tasted pretty good!

Actually, I may have misspoken earlier.  Maybe DESSERT is life.

We had three tables set up: adults in the dining room, kids at the kitchen table, and then a miniature table-for-two, for our 4-year-old granddaughters (two weeks apart, these two attend the same pre-K and are BFF's).

The tables looked infinitely better filled with people!

We got sparkling grape juice and plastic champagne glasses, so the kiddos could do a toast.  It was moderately successful.  (The way Grammy imagines such scenarios playing out and how they actually play out are two very different things!  Did you know that sparkling grape juice is too spicy?  And that milk actually tastes better in a champagne glass than it does?)  But it was cute anyway.

Speaking of cute...

Here are a couple of my favorite pictures of our day, taken by our youngest son (the filmmaker!) using his awesome camera.   (Nothing against iPhone cameras, which are pretty amazing, but I think his pictures are so much better than mine.)

Cheers!

So that's our Thanksgiving.  I hope yours was a happy one, dear readers.  God bless you and yours!

Now on to Christmas!

Preparing for Family Fun

It has been BUSY, BUSY, BUSY in the Pearl family.  And I've done nothing but bake birthday cakes--not that I'm complaining, because I love both baking and eating cakes; but I must admit that I'm a bit caked-out.

October and November are big birthday months for us.  In October, our oldest son turned 40 (which I blogged about).  But in October, we had four grandchildren with birthdays as well: one grandson turned 9, another 5, and another 3; one granddaughter turned 4.  (And three of those grandchildren's birthdays happened three days in a row!)  Then in November, we've had one grandson turn 8, a granddaughter turn 4, and tomorrow another granddaughter turns 6.  Phew!  I was going to blog about all those birthdays, but alas, I never got around to it.  And I think I just need to move on now and stop worrying about catching up with every bit of news, or I'll never come back to this blog.

On Monday, our youngest son, his wife and their 8-and-1/2-month old little girl will be coming to spend Thanksgiving with us.  (They will be out in Michigan with her clan this Christmas.)

Look at this angel!  I can't wait to see her again!

I asked our baby and his wife whether or not I should decorate for Christmas early, so they can enjoy the decked halls while they're here.  The answer was a resounding yes.  So in the coming days, I will be putting up wreaths and garlands, setting up lighted villages and Nativities, finding the perfect spots for my giant wooden St. Nicks, etc.  (I think I'll wait to put up and decorate the tree until after Turkey Day, but I'm going to try to get the rest done.)

I've got the basement guest room all set.  The baby isn't really sleeping in a crib yet, and will be on the big bed with her mama.  (Our son, at almost 6'3", has trouble sharing this queen-sized bed with both his wife and daughter, so he will most likely be crashing in an upstairs bedroom!)

But here's the ladies' bedroom, all set up for them.

The bed is normally in the center of the wall, with a little table and lamp on either side.  But I pushed it up against the side wall for safety's sake.

Our daughter-in-law's favorite chocolates are on the nightstand.

A new Christmas outfit awaits our granddaughter (in the makeshift "closet" of the bedroom).

Their Christmas gifts are all wrapped, in a gift bag that's ready to take with them when they go.

This guest bedroom is just off the playroom, as you can see.

 

I'm so excited that we're going to have them with us!

I always get excited to have my kids and their kids over, anytime, for any reason.  Today, in fact, all the VA gang are coming for an impromptu party, to watch the Notre Dame football game together.  There will be 7 or 8 adults and 13 or 14 children (not sure if the littlest guy and his mom, who live about 50 minutes away, will be coming along or not).  I started puttering around this morning, getting things ready.  It's going to be very simple fare: grapes, cheese and crackers, potato chips and dip, tortilla chips and salsa, nuts and other snack mixes, beer, soda, and pizzas delivered from Domino's. (I also baked up some chocolate chip cookies, which was a nice little change of pace from cake-baking!)

I had to clean up the play area of the basement in preparation, of course.  It was still a bit of a mess from the last grandchildren visit about a week ago.  I like to start out with a clean, orderly playroom, because I think the kids do better when it's that way at the outset.  (I have a post on this subject languishing in my drafts; perhaps one of these days I'll publish that!)

By the way, I never thought we'd have so many dolls in our playroom, having raised only sons.  But look at our collection!  

Anyway, more about dolls and toys and such later, when I finally post that draft.  In the meantime, Happy Saturday to you. 

And GO IRISH!

Six Little Sailors (and My Five Babies)

The second-born of our five sons now has five sons of his own.  His youngest (our 21st grandchild) was born this past June.

He and his wife Ginger also have a little girl in Heaven.  At 16 weeks gestation, Saint Monica Mary Pearl went home to God on August 27, 2019.

But here on earth, they have five boys, just like we do.

Our boys didn't have extensive wardrobes, and there weren't a lot of clothing items worth hanging onto after they grew out of babyhood; but I did keep a little blue sailor suit (circa 1985, size 3-6 months) and a bigger white sailor suit (circa 1983/84, size 2T).  All five of our boys had professional pictures taken in the white one between one and two years of age.  But only two of them (#2 and #3) had photos taken in the little blue one.  I know I didn't have it yet when it would have fit my firstborn, and son #2 was the first one to wear it.  I'm not sure, though, why I never got photos of #4 and #5 wearing it.  (They were my biggest, both over 10 pounds at birth, so I wonder if they just grew out of it before I thought to put them in it?)

I'm sentimental about those vintage sailor suits.  And so is my daughter-in-law Ginger.  She has had all five of their boys photographed in the blue sailor suit that their daddy once wore, and four out of the five in the white one (I'm sure the little guy will have his picture taken in it, too, when he gets old enough!).  Yesterday, she texted us this collage with our boy (top row, middle) and his five boys all wearing the same little sailor suit.

This is why I hold onto things!!  Isn't that collage just priceless?

Looking at it makes me nostalgic for the days when I was the mom of sweet baby boys.

Oh yeah, that's right: I still am.  They'll always be my babies.  They are still sweet, they are still just the cutest, and I love them so much.  They're all my favorites.  

On that note,  I'm going to show you another collage--one that I made about seven years ago.  It illustrates my point, about the cuteness.

Son #2 has joked that maybe they'll "beat" us and end up with 6 boys.  I say go for it!  I had an enlargement made of that collage of sailor suit babies, and it's already hanging up on the wall; but I will be more than happy to update it, if the need arises!