Does that make today Gray Saturday?

You know, because yesterday was Black Friday. Our last guests just left so I'm now finally writing my long-awaited Thanksgiving post. We had Grammie, Laura, Molly, Emily, Russell, Baby Gavin, Mike, Mandy, and Baby Miles. Plus the four of us, of course. My mom and I spent all of Wednesday cooking, plus Mom painted Betsy's room pink. We were able to get all of the pies, the cinnamon rolls, and most of the side dishes prepared ahead of time - it was still a pretty hectic Thanksgiving so I can't imagine what would have happened if I hadn't gotten a head start! But, there was plenty of food to go around and I think everyone had a pretty good time.

I made a 17-pound turkey which, surprisingly enough, didn't actually have any giblets. It was actually kind of disturbing. I pulled out the turkey neck and then I kept rooting around in there, looking for the liver and the gizzards and whatever other disgustingness is inside the turkey, and I couldn't find anything. I looked inside of it even. Apparently the good people at Archer Farms have figured out a way to grow a turkey with no internal organs.
We put all the leaves in the dining room table, even though we probably didn't really need it - we had 8 at the grownups' table and 3 at the kids' table (plus 2 babies). But it was handy to have extra room for the rolls and gravy and cranberry sauce and delicious sparkling white grape juice. And, I totally had Emily bring paper plates for the dinner because no way am I washing all those dishes.

We decided not to let Russell come back next year.
Baby Miles (that's what my kids call him and I have a hard time thinking of him as just 'Miles.' He's really going to hate me when he's a teenager) had a cute little My First Thanksgiving outfit, although you can't really see it here. But there was a turkey on the front. He was a good baby for most of the day until Mike and Mandy actually wanted to sit down for dinner. Isn't that kind of Murphy's Law for Babies? Just like they have to poop the moment you finally get the carseat buckled up and the diaper bag loaded. So, they got to take turns eating one-handed. I, meanwhile, got to use both hands to shovel food into my gaping maw because my baby still eats with an umbilical cord. Yes, I am enjoying while it lasts, why do you ask?
Here's Grammie and Molly with Baby Gavin. His favorite thing at our house is the ceiling fan. It lights up, and it spins around. What more could a little boy ask for?
The boys both have little red sweaters that Grammie hand-knitted. Miles has a red one for IU, naturally. I think Gavin's is just red because Mom already had the yarn. And, here's all of us. Well, most of us. Mandy, Russell and Matt were taking the pictures. So I guess it's really some of us because my dad stayed in Rochester, Kevin went to Catherine's place in Philadelphia, and Rob is still in Iraq. Still, it's a pretty good sized gathering of people. Unlike a lot of (normal-sized) families, we can round up ten or twelve people without breaking a sweat.
We absolutely did NOT do any shopping on Black Friday. Especially not at four o' clock in the morning. That's what sleep is for. Although I did feel for my dad who was working at Toys R Us yesterday, that must have been a madhouse. Nope, we pretty much sat around the house. Russell cooked us a fat-laden breakfast (seriously, no one can fry potatoes like Emily's husband), Matt put up Christmas lights outside (Betsy: "Oh, look! My house has a lot of sparkles on the door, and on the winnows, and on the garage!") and I put on the Muppets and baked the first official batch of chocolate cherry cookies. The first of many because those cookies are the best ever. In fact, I had my mom pick me up an industrial size vat of maraschino cherries at the wholesale club before she came out, because it's cheaper than buying them in the cute little jars that may be perfect for stocking the mini-fridge in your wet bar, but are wholly inadequate for producing the necessary amount of cookies for the holiday season. I'll probably make three or four (double) batches between now and the New Year.

In the evening, we bundled up the kids and went to see the Christmas windows, just like last year. (We thought about going down to Monument Circle to see the lighting ceremony, but I decided against it because it was a lot colder this year than last year.) Betsy really liked the one antique store with dolls in the window.

Had Steak n Shake afterwards, of course. I've managed to turn Emily into a Frisco melt convert so of course I had to have one myself. (For years I always got the same thing: Frisco melt platter and an orange freeze. I've branched out some since then. For example, the dark chocolate milkshake is heaven in a glass.) I guess there's only so much leftover turkey a person can take. Of course, we still have a lot of it left but the skinny little fries gave me a lot of fortitude to go home and make casseroles.

So: It was a good time and a nice kick off to the holiday season. Also, the Colts won!