The Fullest of Full Thanksgivings

The entire week of Thanksgiving was as absolutely full as it has ever been. (In activities and goings on as well as in just ... the actual physical fullness of our home.)

Abe and Kenya bravely came to stay for five whole nights. (And it was brave. I have said this before, but if you stand by the bathroom in the hallway of this rental you can basically see the entire house. Three bedrooms [one of them not much bigger than some walk-in closets], two bathrooms, and a kitchen/living room area that isn't much bigger than the loft in our new house. That meant Abe and Kenya slept on camping pads in the living room and never had any opportunity--short of leaving the house all together--to be anywhere that wasn't within arm's reach of a sibling. Multiple siblings.)

Daisy, of course, came from Provo as well. 

And Goldie and Wyatt, while living in Logan (and thus not needing to sleep here), were gathered here throughout the week.

14 of us. And only one couch and one loveseat to be shared amongst us all.

There were movies to be watched (how we fit to watch them I can't fully recall), and pies to be made (many cooks in the kitchen). We watched the Macey's parade and the National Dog Show while various kids took turns peeling, and cutting, and draining, and mashing potatoes for the 60-plus people who would be at the Harris Thanksgiving. There was getting us all to North Ogden in multiple cars for the big Thanksgiving feast. (Sadly, I have no pictures from that main event of the week.) There were errands needing run. And Abe and Kenya taking half the kids rock climbing while Penny and Daisy took half the kids roller skating. There were large meals to be made and clean-up to be done (constantly). There was Kenya needing taken to the insta-care for bronchitis (which didn't stop her from the Turkey Trot with Abe on Thanksgiving morning.) And there was clay pigeon and pellet-gun shooting, and touring of the house, and animal feeding at the farm. And of course there were all the moments in between dotted full of games, and treat-making, and conversations, and laughter, and occasional exhaustion.

Just a little pellet gun.

Mette's first time.

Devin and Melissa came up one night to visit. The kids all adore entertaining Stella and Moses (the happy fella pictured below). It made me miss having a toddler for everyone to dote on! Penny and I were talking the other day about how, from age 1 1/2 to age 12, she had a new baby sibling come home about every other year--and for a while there, every year! It seems a shame that our younger kids haven't gotten to experience that! 

Goldie helped Mette do a Charlie Brown feast one evening.

Abe texted me pictures of the Thanksgiving climbing with the kids as well as a few from when he took Jesse and Anders with his pal Noah in October, so I just threw them in here as well.

Anyway! Next year we will have plenty of space: multiple bathrooms, many places to sit, and extra rooms for sleeping; so this crowded, little holiday week of being squished together will be a fun one to remember, and I am very glad for whatever it is in humans that makes us want to gather together and be with the people we call family!