Thanksgiving at Paul's

Paul and I were clicking away with our cameras, and even had to photo each other taking photos! The spread is starting to come together!

Mandy's mom, Mandy (and baby Elliot), Paul and Rick
Mandy's sisters and cousins

My mom and Aunt Suzy .

They were trying to look serious for me, but I caught the best moment of all!

See those pretzels? They are orange syrup covered crunchy bits of goodness.

Rick's own recipe - he was trying to make something else and ended up with this!

Swoon!

After Texas, I drove to Kansas City, Missouri for Thanksgiving at my brother Paul's. I invited myself this year, yes I did! I emailed my sister-in-law, told her I was coming up to KC for Thanksgiving and wouldn't it be great if she hosted Thanksgiving at her house? (Notice I bypassed the big guy to get to the real power for the answer!)

Lucky for me, the big guy was cool with that and made this YUMMY salmon dip. I swiped the recipe but I can't find it now. I'm sure it's in the big box of misc. stuff that I haven't unpacked from my car. As soon as I do, I'm posting the recipe. Right after I make it again.

Ok, My sister in law just sent me the recipe. I thought it had liquid smoke in it, but I guess not.

**Edited to add the recipe:
1 (8-ounce) tub light cream cheese
2 Tbsp chopped fresh dill
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
4 ounces smoked salmon chopped, divided
Dill sprigs (optional)

Combine 1st 3 ingredients in food processor. Add half of salmon, process until smooth. Fold in remaining half of salmon. Garnish w/ Dill springs.

Yield: 12 servings (serv size 2 tbsp)

Calories: 56 Fat 3.5g, Protein: 4g, Carb 1.4g, Fiber 0g, Chol 9mg, Iron 0.2mg, Sodium: 89mg, Calc 30mg

The kids move on to other prey!

It was like having a herd of lemmings running around. That could talk. With really cute smiles.

Molly getting ready for her picture. Isn't that smile just gorgeous? She looks so grown up. I love her hair with the barrette on the side.

This was supposed to be my awesome shot of Colton and Molly for Rafe. As you can tell, I should have taken more than one picture. I just couldn't get over how big they've gotten and how sweet, and I knew Rafe would be floored. I have no idea how I kept getting my shadow in the picture when I was the one BEHIND the camera flash, but I did.

Thanksgiving Hugfest

I can't remember why the kids decided to spontaneously start hugging people in this picture, but I love it. Especially the one of them ganging up on Sherlene. Amelia didn't care what was going on, if her cousins were doing it, she wanted in on it.

I love this one - it looks like Molly and Amelia are grinning at each other.
"High Five, Cuz!"

Denton Thanksgiving

By the time my sister came home from her vacation and I headed to Denton for some much needed (peace and quiet) rest and relaxation, I had a bacterial infection in my eye and sinusitus although I didn't know it. I just knew I was very, very tired and I'd felt like I'd had a migraine headache for a week. It was great to be at Ashley's house because it was quiet.

Did I mention the quiet? It was nice. :)

I made dinner one night while I was staying at Ashley's and Rafe's dad and aunt came over. I definitely must have been off my feed, because I realized much later that I didn't take any pictures, which is unlike me.

One of the best parts of my visit there was being able to sit at the table with Molly one night and work on one of her homework projects with her. I wish I had taken a picture of it; it turned out very cute and all I did was cut and glue things where she told me to! She's such a bright kid and so eager to learn. She'll definitely go far. I really enjoyed spending that time with her and it made me a bit wistful as I would love to be physically closer to all the kids on both sides to do projects with them.

I do have Thanksgiving pics, though, so I will post all I have. Again, I took far fewer than I normally do.

Colton, Robbie, Britney, Amelia

Trish, Molly, Robbie

Trish, Colton, and Molly off to the far right

Chocolate Overload

Whenever I go to visit my sister, I try and cook with a few of the kids on something they really want to try. Something exotic, something unusual, expose them to new things, teach them new techniques.

For some reason, Vivi insisted box brownies made the cut.

Obviously, this worked for AmeliaShy, quiet Greta horning in on the camera action! :)

The first chocolate buzz wasn't enough, so Amelia snuck off to Katie's room with a giant chocolate cookie. She didn't want to hear anyone tell her she couldn't eat it, so she put santa socks on her feet and a big pink hat over her ears. (Yes, she did pick out her own accessories) Then Mommy made her do pushups for sneaking off to eat. Or was that Aunt Ziza making her do pushups for using poor grammar?

Mean, mean mommy!
(Just kidding. She randomly decided to do pushups on her own in Denton. Probably to work off all that chocolate. Note the Santa socks peeking out of the fuzzy Nordic boots she added to her ensemble.)