Thanksgiving :: Great Food and Better Company

My Thanksgiving this year was with my Curran family, and we spent it with the Lindquist family, which has been our tradition over the last several years. We got together with the Lindquists for several years when the boys were young, and then the Lindquists went out of town to family for a few years. We started our tradition up again the last few years. We have a later dinner and then relax and play family games.

Although the group picture here is is after dessert (long after our actual turkey dinner), it does show everyone who was there (except the picture taker, me). Left and around the table: Liz, Scott, Lois, ??, Katherine, Patrick, Connie, Alex, Mom, Victoria, and Dad.

Mom and Connie did the majority of cooking. However, like last year, Patrick, Michael, and I each made a dish that we were bringing over to the Lindquist house for our dinner.

Our family makes a lot of the side dishes. We make two kinds of yams. A yam bake with pecans and brown sugar and yams with cranberries and apples, which is my favorite (and what mom is putting together in the picture)! We also make a corn(bread) casserole which is great! We also do a ham, green bean bake, a relish dish with really yummy marinated mushrooms and, of course, black olives! The Lindquists make the turkey, mashed potatoes (yum!), creamy carrots, stuffing (yummy!), and dessert!

After dinner, we just hang out and relax for a while. Some people take naps. Mostly we vegetate for at least an hour while our stomachs settle down enough for us to play some games.

Connie is pregnant and mom and I got to take a look at the sonograms, which was very cool!

This year we played "Family" again, which I love. The game starts with everyone sitting in a circle and each person writes a name on a piece of paper. Any "famous" or well know person from George Washington to Abraham to Papa Smurf. Then, you have one person read all the names twice, but that is all. The object is to try to remember as many of the names as you possibly can. After that, you start with the person after the reader of the names and they try to guess who would have which name. So, I would guess that my mom would have George Washington and ask if she is that person. If not, the it is the next person's turn. If she is George Washington, then mom comes and sits with me and joins my "family" and it is still my turn. I tell mom who I am, and together we try and guess someone else. Once you guess wrong, it is the next persons turn. The object is to get everyone on one family!

Then we also played Apples to Apples, but it was the Bible version, which was just all out weird!