What was THAT?!

Recap of the weekend... Now that I've gotten enough sleep...

Wednesday: Company started arriving. Robb's brother, sister and their families. Dogs to the kennels, kids on the floors.. (sleeping, that is)

Thursday: Church in the morning. My brother calls me in the middle of church surprised that I'm there. Once I stepped outside, I asked him, "Who are YOU giving thanks to this year?" Apparently the grocery store, because that's where he was. He had been assigned a Haggis, but couldn't find anyone that would sell him a sheeps stomach or pigs behind (more reader friendly choice of wording). So he was wondering what else he could bring. He opted to wander the halls of HyVee and read the back of boxes for recipe ideas. ok...

More company arrived when we returned home. Since my MIL had to work and a nephew and his bride were going to be late, we waited until 4:00pm for dinner. A cousin of Robb's came with his wife, her mom and their new baby. They are Filipino and brought the most wonderful spring rolls and stir fry! wow! The mother in law used to be a chef for a king in the Saudi. So, needless to say, this was an excellent addition to the meal!

There was a table for "all the single ladies" plus two nephews in the livingroom and the rest crowded around my table. With 14 at that table, Robb and I sat at the counter.

Then dishes, dishes, dishes... My sis-in-laws helped out and we got them done, lickety split. No, I didn't lick them... just an expression.

I was exhausted... But brought in the pumpkin pies and let every have at it. The kids played their "spoons" game and some hide and seek game. Then off to bed! Of course, it was 11pm by that time...

Friday: Prep for my side of the family reunion. I picked up the keg of rootbeer (8 gallons) and few other odds and ends that we needed for the evening reunion. Robb went to the hall and started cooking the turkeys. Back and forth from the house to the hall for a few hours until two of my sisters with 6 & 14 (but only brought 9) kids showed up for a quick lunch before taking them all over to the hall. More company showed up at the hall all afternoon. Robb took some of the sports diehards over to his office - just down the block - and got them set up to watch the football game on a projector on the wall. It was almost as if they were AT the game, it was pretty big.

More showed up. The older kids took the younger kids down to the corner to watch Santa ride in on the firetruck, sing Christmas carols with the community and then light the ginormous tree in the middle of the street. Since there was such a big crowd of them, several extra people followed them up the stairs to our hall, thinking this was the spaghetti supper the firemen were putting on. Um nope. Unless you're a blood or married in relative, this meal isn't for you... Poor guy and his little boys climbed back down the steps, as did some teenage boys who were just following the nieces.

As soon as the plates arrived, Robb led the prayer and the kids dug in. Adults kind of held back for a while until the kids were thru. Unfortunately by that time, we noticed that the kids had really piled on the mashed potatoes, so my sister ran to the Dollar General while I heated water for some quick mashed potatoes. That's about the time I noticed that no one had signed up for cups for the meal. I had purchased some that afternoon for the rootbeer while we worked, so I ran around grabbing whatever plastic cups I could find, washing them all until everyone was thru the lines.

Got to talk to some cousins that I so rarely see. It was a great time!

After the meal, we had the annual talent show. Gave the MC and another cousin an official cowbell, as they claim they have no talent. Now they do! One nephew (3 years old) went up the piano a couple times (only once announced) and made up a song for all to enjoy. The MC had a list of everyone that wanted to participate, so he went off of that.

Robb played bagpipes, Ryan and his girlfriend played guitar and sang Camp Out, Maddy played her version of the Office themesong (competing with a cousin) & Remember When, but Meri bowed out this year and didn't participate. She just wanted to enjoy everyone else. That's ok. There were tons of talent and after just over 1.5 hours of performances, the evening wrapped up and everyone started taking their dishes and leaving.

Several sisters and various relatives stuck around to help clean up the hall and I was finally locking the doors around 11pm. Had to go back in once for an uncle who had forgotten something. Got all our guests down to sleep by midnight. whew! I was beat.

Saturday: Our tradition is that when we host here, Robb makes a variety breakfast for anyone staying over in town or at our house. He made pancakes, while I got the biscuits and gravy ready (pre-made - easier that way). He also made an egg/hashbrown casserole in the roaster. Almost ALL the nieces and nephews chose pancakes... We've got gravy coming out of our ears...

Afterwards, two of my sisters and I went shopping and I showed off my antique booth to them. Then after a quick lunch, I put the kids to work helping me drag in our Christmas tree from the garage. With the tall nephews help, the tree went up pretty quickly and the kids had a great time adding all the ornaments to Christmas music. The rest of the evening must be getting blocked in my memory. I can't remember what we did. Maybe I slept or did laundry...
Sunday: Said goodbye to my oldest sister and her kids, as they had a 12 hour drive ahead of them. Then off to church where we helped the congregation decorate the church and put up the same Christmas tree that I had just done at our house. So I got put in charge of connecting all the plug ins for that one too.

That afternoon, Meri started feeling yucky, so she and I snuggled in the glow of the Christmas tree and slept.

I'm suddenly very tired again after the rehash... I need another nap.