Thanksgiving Feast 2010

thanksgiving this year = perfect. i got to sleep in until 11:30. the house was already clean in anticipation of family coming over (well coming up stairs), and all the food i was in charge of was already cooked as well.

above: L-R: jalee, heidi, kerstyn, casey, elissa, darwin, chad, mcall and caden. opposite: mom, dad, kinsey, loren, logan, connor, connie, brookie, and jenell. below: grandma, kevin, and jenell gather around the food.

the mccleve's ate at 1:00 on our back porch. the weather was perfect - even getting a little chilly once the breeze started. of course the food was great - yams (look forward to those every year), turkey, green bean casserole, rolls, salads, mashed potatoes and gravy, ham, and cranberry relish. i just learned this thanksgiving, that cranberry relish was for your turkey! who knew? i always have eaten my relish with my rolls and i guess kyle's always done the same too. relish on your turkey? that sounds so weird!

kinsey - still toothless

of course addison wasn't much of an eater until dessert came. cookies, cupcakes, chocolate delight, and a pumpkin pie were among our choices. i assumed everyone would bring a pie, so i made chocolate delight because who doesn't need a little chocolate. turns out everyone thought like me and there was only one pumpkin pie from darwin - thank goodness my mom brought a second just in case and i made a sweet potato pie the day before.

above: michelle and jesse concentrated on their food. below: kinsey, my dad, and my mom finishing up. mom wasn't too happy getting her picture taken.

after everyone one was full on good food, we started digesting in the living room and soon there were three ipads being played with and passed around. about that time, kyle and i left for his parents' home.

as always, kyle's dad showed me all the food they had and told me to help myself, but i was already having trouble breathing from all the food i had already eaten. so kyle and i sat down in the living room and started talking with the family already full on turkey. kyle's cousin emily and husband spencer came down from utah. i loved talking to her about her pregnancy. she is due in early april with two twin boys dallin and monson - love those names! i'm so excited for them!

the mckay feast with kyle's dad and cousin robert looking over it.

everyone was impressed with addison who is completely potty trained now. she is doing great, i just hope she doesn't go back to diapers once baby mac comes - which i hear is not uncommon. addy's favorite person was probably uncle kirt, who she was so excited to see. she yelled "DTURT!" all day and mostly just wanted to be on his lap. i think kirt was secretly pleased with this."DTURT!" addison is getting so big!

dil, exhausted from eating the turkey. cousin leroy won the weight-gaining contest this thanksgiving by eating 7 lbs worth of food.

stephanie and bobby taking yummy leftovers home

when i went to bed i found a thankful note from kyle on my pillow. i love how thoughtful he is. not only is he handsome and has the cutest babies, but he also is so sweet and caring and i know that those things aren't always packaged together!

mckay family. november 25th, 2010

thanksgiving has been perfect. this year i gave thanks for:

• kyle: husband and father extordinaire


• addison: most adorable and quickest learner


• healthy pregnancy: can't wait to meet this baby soon


• healthy moms: both our moms have been told this year that they are in COMPLETE remission from wegner's disease and ovarian cancer, two miracles.


• country and freedoms: and all those that lead and protect us


• gospel: the one thing that never changes and makes me happy no matter what happens
  
  

hope you had a wonderful day of thanks with the ones you love!

Celebrating Gratitude

thanksgiving this year at the brown's consisted of football, hammock swinging, catching up on eachother's lives and of course aunt jackie bragging that her food is THE BEST. it seems as the brown bunch gets older, the family gets smaller at each gathering. there still were a ton of people and it's always fun to see everyone and their new babies (there are always new babies). jacob, alli, isaac, and jayce - did i spell that right? this

picture looks like a holiday greeting card. they're adorable!

the food, not including all the pie, which there was WAY too much of.

funny note: courtney of course brought her own mashed potatoes because according to her no one else knows how to make them and they are always too mushy. those are her potatoes on the right.

breckyn, stacia, kinsey, hailey, austin, maddison, addison, and me.



after we ate at the brown's, we went to kyle's parent's house to celebrate with his family. we brought harley with us to play with sadie and cinder. i guess all the cousisns think alike because four other dogs also came to the party making a total of seven dogs roaming the mckay home. dogs get special treatment with the mckay family. addison was in heaven and loved all the dogs except harley, who because she's still a puppy, was very hyper.



someone i have yet to find out brought rolls that were DIVINE. i think i stuffed four down my throat, pretty amazing considering i already ate with my side.



we didn't go to the mccleve's but we heard chantell brought a date named chad (page) who ended up being pretty helpful in kickball. awesome.



hope you had a great thankgiving too!

ps. happy birthday to jalee today, she is sweet 16!

A Feast-able Day

i decided that thanksgiving is a wonderful day of torture. the day before and the morning of is spent slaving away over a beautiful dish. then when it's brought to the party, your piece of art is mercilessly cut apart without a second thought. next, is when you've eaten plate after scrumptious plate of the delicious art, and even though the food was sooo good, you can hardly talk, let alone breathe. so then you try and let the food digest as you socialize with the family, take a nap, or play cards. you start to see people walking around with a dessert you didn't see, that (of course) you must have, but the problem is you're still so full. needless to say, that really doesn't matter anyway because you know that you're going to roll over to the counter and get yourself a size able helping of the yummy treat. after you eat it, you feel even sicker than heck and you just know that your doctor is gonna kill you when he finds out that the weight you were suppose to gain over the span of four weeks, you easily gain in one. but you figure since you've already done so bad, nothing can make it really too much worse as you continually stuff yourself silly.

falling asleep that night with a completely full stomach is the last of torture for the day. but as you start to sleep, you can't help but subtly smile as you dream of next year when you'll do the same thing.

the thankful pot

i thought that it would be appropriate to talk about some things that i'm thankful for since it's the season to reflect on blessings. i read the talk today that president monson gave in the october 2008 conference. it was called "finding the joy in the journey". pres. monson says that there are subtle changes that are made in our life everyday and that if we are not careful in living fully in every moment and finding joy in the little things, we will, in essence, have an empty life. he quotes a play called the music man where a character says "you pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you've collected a lot of empty yesterdays". president monson advises us to look beyond the endless mounds of laundry, handprints on the wall, and toys everywhere from our children and to reaquaint yourselves with lost friends or loved ones. to have no regrets when you look back at the end of your life. to show love rather than assume someone already knows. to be thankful for the blessings in your life.
i have so much to be thankful for and i have been blessed so much. i have great parents and sisters who love me so much. i have the love of a handsome guy named kyle - who i adore. i'm going to have a baby girl soon. kyle and i by no means are rich, but we can't complain, we're doing fine. i'm loving life right now and feel like i can take president monson's advice to live life to the fullest - right now it seems like it will be pretty easy. we'll see. :)