Heff and I hosted our first Thanksgiving in the new house! We had a relatively small group for our family but 20 of us gathered to cook a giant bird (thanks to the Matthews in Chico for raising it!) and hang out together. The girls

getting "Yummy" the Turkey ready

and on the spit! New BBQ Heff assembled Thanksgiving morning - still has to be faced with stone and finished off but it worked great for Thanksgiving day

Guys around the BBQ, their favorite place to be

aww JJ love for Dad

two tables set for 20

Mimi, Kate and Jannie with the girlies

cousins - lots of joking around and teasing of course :)

I don't remember what was so funny but Francie thought it was hilarious

Jannie and Grampa brought the pram over toour house while we can use it for Tess! That's JJ in there kicker her dirty little feet pretending she's the baby :)

and the champagne drinkers on the porch (I had to go raid their "good stuff" stash :)

John and Heff with the bird!

and I was cracking up my Dad was wearing a kids IKEA arts-and-crafts apron he pulled off the wall :)

Maisie and JJ are ready to eat

Instagramming Thanksgiving dinner is a must ;)

and proving that's a "Farm to fork" bird!

Dinner is served!

maybe doubling the mashed potatoes recipe was agressive?

Maisie insisted on the drumstick - even though it took her six tries to figure out how to get one bite off of it

turkey consumers

Everybody was supposed to write a leaf for the Thankful Tree - but my brother Jerry just held court and asked everyone what they were thankful for while he wrote them. My favorites are Caller ID, Costco, Picture Text Messages and "Speel check" haha

after dinner Lego building, Mimi the biggest kid of all of them was in her element ;)

and what's Thanksgiving without a reenactment of the first Thanksgiving Pageant?!

getting ready for pageant in my office before the big show

soccer ball was totally a time appropriate prop

taking a bow

and the big Turkey Trivia challenge (25 questions about family members personal information - always fun and always a fee fights over the RIGHT answer!)

Jannie the Matriarch in charge

Hank watching over the Turkey Trivia prizes -

it's a family sport

Big winners

Jannie and her girls PJ'ed up

late night hanging out letting Big Uncle Jerry entertain us :)

and Claire reading books to the girls in bed - Francie said her favorite part of Thanksgiving was "Claire... and Aunt Mimi" ;)

Dad in 'camo' with a pink baby blanketed-girl!

Uncle Jerry gave each of the girls a $20 dollar bill! (just like my grampa used to do on special occasions) and JJ looked at it, held it up and goes "Monies? Monies! ARCADE!" haha