Thanksgiving 2007

I just spent the last 20 minutes searching for my checkbook- still can't find it. So balancing the checkbook will have to wait, but I did finally download our pictures from Thanksgiving 2007! This year, we were lucky enough to be invited to The Skittone Family Thanksgiving Festivities in Chicago. It was a great time. Thanksgiving for us is different every year and this year we were able to participate in the "make it to both sides of the family before the day is over", eat yourself silly at both celebrations, and watch the insider family drama (all from our outsider point of view) unfold. I love families! The first snow of the season fell on Thanksgiving and my children were incredibly excited about it.

Ryan faced some crowds the next day to represent us in the After Thanksgiving Shopping festivities while John went to work and Christy and I lounged in our pajamas, drank coffee, and ate way too many pancakes and pumpkin cookies. The kids were somewhere in the house during all of this-- I'm just not sure where (it is a big house). Their home is perfect for lounging and playing and relaxing and I am afraid if I lived closer I would spend way too much of my life reading magazines and snacking in their kitchen.

Once we found the children, we decided to take them out for a "Kid Fun Day". John and Ryan (both returned from their respective duties) went go-carting (the real deal--racing suits, helmets and all) while we took the kids out for an afternoon of bowling, later to meet up for dinner and a movie. But the afternoon turned out so much better than just a couple games of strikes and spares! The bowling alley we chose to visit happened to be closing for a private party so bowling was not going to be on our agenda. Since we were stuck in the area (remember, we were meeting the daddies in a couple of hourse) we thought it would be a great time to teach the kids about how to crash a party. We didn't know who the party was for, so we decided to hide out in the back of the bowling alley in the "Batting Cage" section. Christy bought us some tokens thinking this would be a great way to pass the time. We didn't know that batting cages pitch balls the speed of Lightning McQueen and that we were going to endanger our children's lives by throwing them in the cage. The first pitch ellicited a variety of screams and cries as the children all ducked for safety. But, we did get some good pictures. The first one is Mary after we threw her in the batting cage then quickly pulled her out to save her from bodily harm. Jared wouldn't even go in the cage after the sights and sounds of the first pitch.

The likelihood of a black eye or concussion happening in the arcade was slim, so we thought that would be a good place to hide out until the private party was underway. While we occupied ourselves with skee ball and air hockey, the bowling alley began to fill up with the guests. We had just crashed a Latino Gospel Youth Celebration- performers and all. The bowling alley was packed and the speakers were blaring with a couple of nice men rapping, "When I say Jesus, you say Christ! Jesus! Christ! Jesus! Christ!" It was so loud that we could no longer hear ourselves speak, so we had to usher our children into the quietest corner we could find until it was time to meet the Dads for dinner. Here is how we occupied our time when Latino Gospel Night became a little too loud for our ears:

Dinnertime finally came. We headed to Giordano's for authentic Italian Deep Dish pizza. When we arrived at the restaurant, it was not crowded so we decided to just take our table and wait for the Dads to arrive from go-carting. Once again, we had to be resourceful in how to keep the kids occupied. Kaci learned how to take shots of milk from one of those little creamer containers. She learned the phrase "Hit me" and everything.

Once the Dads arrived, it was time to eat. Good fun, good friends, what else could you ask for! Thank you John, Christy, Mary, and Genny for hosting us for a wonderful weekend.