hey, it's thanksgiving!

As evening approached and the children started asking what was for dinner, I was like, what, you want dinner tonight? Tomorrow's Thanksgiving, I have to cook tonight too? I was finishing up the lemon merangue pie when Margaret so nicely volunteered to make dinner. Paul was at the Dome with Emily, Mirielle, Aaron, and Sam. Joseph was sleeping since he works nights now. So it was just Mali, Margaret, Kathryn, Evelyn, Suzanne, Sonja, Jonathan, Charlotte Claire, Camille, and I. Mali had a huge salad, the rest of us had those frozen Buffalo wings (baked), and chicken nuggets tossed in barbecue sauce before baking, and mixed veggies. It was a light dinner, then Abigail came in the door with all the leftovers from her office party, she was the Designated Dumpee. She had rice krispy treats, a veggie tray, hummus, two packages of Wegman's oatmeal raisin cookies, a box with lots of donuts in it, and a half gallon of apple cider. I did not buy even one jug of cider this year because it was so pricey, so the kids enjoyed that pretty fast.

I was glad I had baked a batch of Paleo chocolate chip cookies and had a few with my after dinner coffee, so I didn't suffer too much saying NO to the donuts.

We watched, "Elf", which is one of the best movies ever.

Being On Vacation with all the kids is fun. Mali helped Jonathan clean his room. She organized all his toys, and cleaned under the bed. Kathryn, Evelyn, and Suzanne helped Charlotte Claire and Camille clean up their room. It feels nice to have them all clean, and like Char said, "My room will stay clean this time, forever and ever." And because I choose to, I believe that.

Paul is going hunting with Samuel in the morning. If they get a deer, we shall try to make some jerky out of it, and try to use the meat. I am a really picky eater, I don't like the game-y-ness of venison. But, beef is so expensive these days, perhaps I can be less picky.

We are having brunch tomorrow. Pomegranates, grapefruit, cantaloupe, scrambled eggs, cinnamon buns, and orange juice. And coffee, of course. With half and half, for the occasion.

Our dinner will be a bit later in the day because of Nocturnal Joseph, and because the hunters may need a nap. We will have turkey and gravy and mashed 'tatoes, fresh squash, brown and serve rolls, stuffing, and probably green beans. And cranberry sauce, baby dill pickles, green olives, and black olives. And cranberry juice or Coke, which is a treat for the kids.

For dessert- pie of course, with whipped cream that Mirielle will make from the heavy cream. Deadly good stuff.

We have much to be thankful for. Emily has Thanksgiving off from work, so fifteen of the kids will be here. We can barely fit 17 at the table, but we can snuggle.

If only Benjamin could be here. He is going to dinner at the house of one of the captains, with a few of his buddies. My heart is so heavy for him, he is sad and lonely. Please pray for him, and for Ashley. With respect to their privacy, I shall say no more, but dang it...I am sad for them.

Being a mom to so many kids brings much joy. But when one of them hurts, I hurt too. I can't help it. I feel bad for them when they are tired, I stress when they stress about tests or homework. I want to do all I can for each of them. I feel stretched thin sometimes, but I don't care. I don't ever want any of them to feel like I don't have time to talk to them. Because, ha, sometimes I don't, but I make time.

One thing I loved about my mother was the way she always took the time to talk to me. She really wanted to hear about my day, and she was always there when I needed her. And it wasn't just me, she could talk to anyone. I always suspected that my friends liked my mother more than they liked me. Because she gave them The Time Of Day. That is the biggest gift my mother gave to me, that gift of Being There for the kids.

Today is done, today was fun....oh, but the laundry I did! Load after load. The dog pee stuff had to be washed THREE TIMES. Then one of the lovely kitties decided to take a poop in the clean sock basket. Not the dirty sock hamper, no, that would have made too much sense. Right on the rare and beautiful MATCHED SOCKS. I walked in there and smelled that distinctive smell of cat poo...sorry. But I did what any lazy mom would do...I threw out several pairs of socks. Washing doggy pee clothes is one thing, I am not washing cat poop socks.

Anyway, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. We will pick names for Secret Santa, "Confidential Claus", as Margaret and I dubbed it. Camille had Paul help her cut up a whole pile of paper rectangles. She wrote her name on one, then squiggles on all the others. She said, "I wrote the names for Secret Santa, but no one else can read them because I wrote them in cursive. So I will pass them out and tell everyone who they have." I looked at them there in the box and laughed my head off..cursive, yes.

I AM thankful for my family.