Smith Family Thanksgiving

 Random picture of Bear Dog Mike sent us

This morning was crazy. I signed up for a super hard exercise class with Michael Banks. I use to love going to his classes, but he has stopped having them. This one is at a different place. I got up early and drove there with plenty of time. Except I couldn't find it. I ended up driving around for forty minutes. Lame. Right when I got home Rachel texted me that she had ordered me a pie and forgot to tell me when to pick it up. I got back in the car and drove to Daybreak. Rachel ordered me a pie from Charles' wife. (Charles is one of Brett's best friends.) I had always wanted to try one of her pies because Rachel has raved about her cooking. Rachel ordered me a chocolate pie and it was tasty.

I stopped by the store on the way home from picking up the pie. I had extra cranberries and decided to make a cranberry dipping thing. Being Thanksgiving morning the store was pretty crazy. I got home and went to pull out the macaroni I had in the freezer, only to find out that our freezer died! We had the giant thing of ice-cream in there that we were supposed to bring also. UGH! I hurried to the store again and picked up the macaroni and ice-cream. I had just gotten to the car when Mike asked me to get something else. So, yesterday when I thought I had everything ready for Thanksgiving..... I ended up going to the store THREE times. Lame. 

But.... Thanksgiving was awesome and so much fun! Steve and Shannon hosted. The Hodson's came too. Lisa and Nathan were even in town and Melissa brought her new baby!!! His name is James Orion. They like having their kids named after something with astrology. Nova and Leo are their other kids. Astrology middle name with this one. He is adorable. The Hardy's were celebrating Thanksgiving in New York, we missed them but they had a great time.

Anyways, Thanksgiving was delicious. We ate and played so many games. Ghost detective, Conception, Scum, Jackbox... probably more but I can't remember one month later. (So behind on the blog!) Jorja did say this was the best Thanksgiving she has ever had. It was really quite a wonderful day. The only bummer was Maysen had to work the entire day. She had articles assigned to her that were due today. A few weeks later she found out she doesn't have hard deadlines, but she didn't know that today. Other than that the day was perfect. I love being with my family.

Taylor carrying Jorja back from visiting the ducks

Stephanie & Taylor

Jacob, Michael, Erica

Jorja, Mike, Steve playing Ghost Detective

The game is really called Paranormal Detective, but I like Ghost Detective better

Brandon, Preston, Stockton

That's all the pictures I have from today. Stockton did a lot of homework while he was here too. He sure has been working hard on school. It is amazing watching your kids work hard and have success. What a wonderful day. (Minus the giant freezer dying......)

Thanksgiving in Parrydise

Today was a great day! We had a no-stress Thanksgiving and it was amazing. Each of the kids made a part of the dinner. Maysen made mac and cheese, Jorja made mashed potatoes and Preston made apple pie. Mike and I tag teamed the rest. (Mostly Mike... he is a WAY better cook than I am.) Mike loved not having a time he had to work everything around. It was yummy and fun. I loved it.

Jorja

Jorja and Preston

Jorja, Stephanie, Maysen, Preston, Mike

Stockton called and we were able to talk with him for thirty minutes. On Sunday he will become the new zone leader. One of the zone leaders is having an emergency transfer and the mission president asked Stockton yesterday if he would step into his place. Stockton is the only one who knows and says it is crazy knowing that everything is going to change on Sunday. It was great to talk with him. Last Thanksgiving without him! He sounds happy. Some members invited him to Thanksgiving, but then got scared because of covid. Instead they dropped off food for him and Elder Radley. I don't think Stockton was expecting much, but they dropped off an entire Thanksgiving feast. People are good.

Stephanie and Jorja

Jorja took a nap on the couch with Bear while we were playing Gloomhaven. She loved it. I took lots of pictures. She loves that dog.

Bear and Jorja

Jorja's Thanksgiving collage

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a pretty low-key Thanksgiving. Yesterday I made cranberry sauce and banana cream pies, so today I just needed to make the rolls. I made them while I talked to Stockton. I talked to him for almost FIVE hours! It was the best! Some wonderful ward members picked Stockton and Elder Kelly up and shared their Thanksgiving dinner with them. That made me so happy!

We had Thanksgiving dinner at Steve and Shannon's house. It was our family, Steve's family, Shannon's mom and two nieces. Erica and their nephew Max were on the computer for a bit talking to their families from the mission field. I didn't take many pictures, but I love this picture of Jorja and Weston. They look so much alike here! Weston does look like Waldo though...must be the hat.

Jorja & Weston

The only other picture I got was of Preston. His belly was poking up a little, so I pulled his shirt down before I snapped the picture. Preston was too fast for me and pulled it up ridiculously high. Weirdo.

Preston and Oscar

We played games after dinner until it was time to go to Frozen 2. We met Sherry and her family there. Only got to connect with them for a second, but at least it was something! Maysen spent Thanksgiving in Logan. I hope she was happy. She's not a fan of big meals.

The Medlock's sent me this picture tonight and made me so happy! After dinner Stockton and Elder Kelly helped the Medlock's set up their Christmas tree. (I have a hard time referring to Stockton as Elder Smith.....so I'm not going to worry about it. He will always be Stockton to me.)

Brother Medlock, Stockton and Elder Kelly

Last Thanksgiving Together

Happy Thanksgiving! Today was such a fun day. I started off by getting up bright and early and going to my Body by Banks class. Holy cow, that is a good workout. I talked to Stacy for awhile before class started. Her boy is on a mission in Spain right now. She asked if we were supposed to get Stockton a phone. We are. She says it's the greatest. They set up Jackson's phone on Google photos. Anytime he takes a picture it gets uploaded there. She basically gets pictures from him everyday. I'm so excited! We are definitely doing that! I got to spend the rest of the day with my little family. It was so great to have my family together all day long. We ate, laughed, played, laughed, slept, laughed. It was perfect.

Pumpkin Turkey

 Repurposed from Riley

We went to see Wreck It Ralph, Ralph Breaks the Internet this afternoon. The Draper Theater is pretty cool. All of the seats are reclining. They were super comfortable too. The movie was good. Not super good, just good. I stayed awake, I think. Mike kept mentioning parts that I didn't remember. He claims I fell asleep, I really don't think I did. Except during the previews, but who needs to see those. Jorja was making fun of me for not being able to make it past the previews though. I really think I watched the entire movie. I just don't remember every little detail like the rest of my family. We stayed during the credits and watched a little extra thing that made us laugh. Then they had the rest of the credits. Mike and the girls left. I stayed with the boys until the bitter end. There was a Frozen 2 preview at the end. Then when the cursor clicked on it Ralph showed up singing the Rick Roll song. It was so funny. Preston was laughing so hard and was sad Mike missed it. We tried to take a family photo after the movie. Mike set his phone on a timer for this.

Stephanie, Preston, Jorja, Mike, Maysen, Stockton

 A worker asked if she could take one for us. She tried, but it was still on a timer. It was so funny!

Mike, Stephanie, Preston, Jorja, Maysen, Stockton

We tried to get another family photo once we got home. Jorja even went to find her selfie stick. Too bad Preston wasn't cooperating. He did not want to get his picture taken. At all. Oh the joys of twelve year olds.

Mike, Preston, Jorja, Stockton, Maysen, Stephanie

 Mike, Stockton, Jorja, Stephanie, Preston, Maysen

The next event of the day was the cooking. Mike took care of most of it, thank heavens. Jorja made the most delicious mashed potatoes I have ever had. I made rolls, too bad they didn't finish in time. Everyone was stuffed by the time the rolls were out of the oven. While we were cooking, Jorja asked what kind of pie we had. Apple. We decided to only get one this year. Jorja was aghast. She wanted chocolate. Apparently chocolate pie is her favorite thing about Thanksgiving. Who knew? Jorja drove me to the store and we picked up a chocolate pie twenty minutes before they closed. Crisis averted.

Mike

 Back of Jorja

 Mike, Jorja, Stockton, Maysen, Preston

 Post Thanksgiving nap ~ Mike, Quacky Chan, Jorja's arm

 Kiki & Jorja

 Stockton and Preston played a lot of Nintendo Switch together. Much to Preston's delight.

Stockton, Preston, Maysen

 Jorja & Kiki

 I thought it was funny that the game said 'You got a moon' when clearly it is a star.

We played 5ive Straight as teams. Maysen & Mike, Stockton & Preston, Jorja and me. There was one time that Maysen and Mike would win if they could put a card in the one slot. Only two cards would work, a one and a zero. We were teasing Maysen. We knew she had the zero because she looked so suspicious. It was so funny!

Maysen

Preston had his turn right before Maysen and he happened to have the one. We laughed and laughed. It only took two seconds for Maysen to have another run put together. This time only the zero could win, which was obviously her. Stockton put a peg in another spot so they had four in a row. Mike needed to stop them, but he had no cards. I only had one card. It needed to be lower than a 58. It was a 98. So, Stockton and Preston ended up winning. Maysen was robbed. It was pretty funny though. Our next game was Apples to Apples. I won that one, even though Preston had his duck on his team.

Quacky Chan & Preston

Jorja wanted to practice driving her car down to Chick-Fil-A. Mike and I went with her. It was pretty dark and rainy, but Jorja did fantastic. She didn't stall the car once! She is becoming a lot more confident driving a stick. She is going to love it when this becomes second nature to her. Jorja also posted a few cute pictures. On Instagram she had a grateful for her eight best friends. One of her and Hailey, then Dessa, then Madison. The last one was us. I'm glad she loves us so much, because we all adore her.

 Maysen, top of Preston's head, Jorja, Stockton, Stephanie, Mike

She posted the next one on her private Snapchat story. I asked if I could post it here. I am so proud of how hard Jorja has worked to get emotionally stable. She is right, she is in an infinitely better place than she was a year ago. We joked with her about 'the new love she found'. Totally sounds like a boy. She was talking about how she has learned to love herself. Haha. She does have a crush on a boy right now, but that is not what she meant. I love how she has a picture of her and Evan on the post. They don't interact as much now as they did last year, but man did he help her through some tough times. I will always love that boy. The other two pictures are Hailey and Madison. Both are gems. Love, love, love them.

Thanksgiving

Last Saturday my oldest nephew eloped. He sent this picture to Steve. Spencer got married in Rhode Island to Xiouxuan.

Xiouxuan & Spencer

I felt better today, but not great. I did not want to cook anything. I wasn't that confident in my not being sick abilities. Mike and I went to the store this morning and grabbed rolls and pie. Luckily I still had lots of cranberry sauce from dinner on Sunday. Plus, that stuff gets better after a few days anyway. We had dinner with Steve and Shannon and their family. Shannon had everything looking perfect. I felt so bad that she worked so hard and I wasn't able to do my part.

 Stockton, Brandon, Weston, Preston, Jorja

 Steve, Mike, Stephanie, Jacob, Erica

I also don't have a picture of Shannon. Whoops. Scoop came over after dinner. Another person I didn't get a picture of. I was wishing I had gotten a picture of him with his grandkids, or at least him with his sons. Mike, Steve and I played Hearts with him. Just like old times. He won, just like old times.

Mike was not feeling well and was anxious to get home. He slept for a bit, but then . . . Jorja and I were in the kitchen when we heard him throwing up. Now, just to give some context. Mike has the loudest sneezes in the world. I tease him about that all the time, because they are obnoxiously loud. Well, apparently he is loud when he is sick too. Jorja and I kind of looked at each other when we could hear him. I started laughing. Jorja kept saying, "Mom! It's not funny!" Oh but it was. I don't know why, but it was hilarious. I gathered the kids to read scriptures when someone brought up the fact that dad got sick. Again I started laughing. I couldn't stop. I was crying I was laughing so hard. Mike came in to find out what was so funny. I told him why I was laughing. He did not find it as humorous as me. This entire week has been ridiculous with the sickness. Nine of ten people got knocked down by this bug. Jorja is the only one who is still holding strong. That thing didn't even touch her. Let's hope it never does.