Thanksgiving Day!

What a wonderful day we had today! We started the day with a movie and the kids helping to get ready to cook. About 11 this morning the cooking began. The girls started the pumpkin custard, then we stat down and watched a movie while wating for the next step.

Once the movie was over started the ham. With another movie playing we talked about how the rest of the cooking was going to play out. The younger kids did not understand why the cooking had to be staggered. Finally, the ham was able to placed in the oven and the next timer set. This time we played some games to distract the kids for a couple hours. After the bread was started and in the oven we could move onto the next set of steps. From this point the cooking steps would begin to move much faster.

At last it was time for Chantelle to join me in the kitchen to help with the stuffing. She was thrilled to measure the water into a bowl, dropped the butter into the bowl, dumped the stuffing mix into the bowl. her face lit up as she dumped more and stired everything together. With the stuffing in the baking pan and in the oven she happily jumped out of the kitchen to go play.

Next, Zach was thrilled to help with the mashed potatoes. Once again opening and mixing was delightful. Jairon helped with the gravy and was thrilled to learn this year we would be using my gravy dish made from the volcanic ash when Mt St Helens exploded in 1980.

Corbyn helped with the candied yams. He helped to make the syrup to pour over the yams. Carefully measuring and mixing the ingredients was so much fun for him. I poured the hot syrup over the yams and placed the pan into the oven for him.

Finally, with everything else ready to go and the ham down to the last 10 minutes Jade was thrilled to make the glaze to cover the ham. Once the ham was glazed we placed the ham back in the oven turned the heat up and set the table.

With the table cloth in place, dishes in place the kids were thrilled to have the opportunity to pull my gold plated silverware out of the special wooden box. The silverware I only let them use for special occasians.

Dinner this year was special for the kids because everyone had a special task they got to help with from cooking to setting to cleaning up from. This also helped me. I am still getting over my bronchitis and get worn down very easy. They loved being able to help, I loved not having to do as much yet everything got done.

With all the all the extra help the kisd gave it was really a wonderful and fun day with the kids.

Tomorrow we are going to stay home where it is warm, watch movies, make Christmas decorations, and enjoy each other.