Thanksgiving

We had a w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l Thanksgiving this year at the Tanners' cabin. One of the best parts was that Tricia came home from New York for the occasion. Blake was thrilled to make cranberry sauce with his favorite aunt.

Tricia and her boyfriend, Jacob, took Blake on a walk while the feast was cooking.

The Thanksgiving feast required all day preparation. We were joined by Troy's aunt and uncle, Grandma Tanner, and lots of Tanner cousins. There were 16 people in total at the celebration, helping out in the kitchen at various times.

It is a Tanner tradition to go around before or after the meal and share what each person has been grateful for in the past year. It usually turns into a testimony meeting-like event, but it is something that we should do more often. It took a while for 16 of us to each share our blessings, and we laughed when Blake got bored and disappeared, and shortly after, all of the lights in the house mysteriously dimmed to off. Blake still has an obsession with lights and light switches.

Troy took his place at the head of the table, ready for his meat. The food was SO delicious that it made my tiredness after eating almost painful. Blake enjoyed the feast as well and added his own very loud "Amen!" after the blessing on the food.

Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without a little family football, even in the snow.

The brave bunch endured the cold.

There was also a lot of wii Rockband that occurred, including a guitar debut by both Blake and Troy's 89-year-old Grandma. 

Blake wanted to be just like his dad with his guitar strapped around him.

Just the three and a half of us.

In addition to the feasting, football, and Rockband, we popped bubble wrap with our feet.

We colored file folder games for Humanitarian Aid.

We spent time on the hammocks. Blake found a new best friend, Troy's 12-year old cousin Alex. The two of them were inseparable as Blake dragged her around the house. It's too bad that she lives an hour away from us because we would hire her to watch Blake every weekend.

The cabin was the perfect place to have Thanksgiving. There was so much to do both inside and outside and everyone was able to fit into beds or couches to spend the night. We did have a few electrical problems, however. The lights randomly went on all night long in two of the bedrooms. Of course one of the bedrooms was where Blake and I were sleeping (Troy slept separate so that his 5am work alarm wouldn't wake Blake up). I think I put Blake to bed at least four times because every time he mellowed out or drifted off, the light and fan came on full speed in his room and he stood right up in his crib with confused tears streaming down his face.

It became an all night long battle with the lights; I'd turn them off and they'd go right back on. These battles lasted for several minutes at a time and happened every couple of hours. Then, each time the lights stayed off, I lay in bed wide awake anticipating the next time the battle would occur, hoping that Blake wouldn't wake up. We finally outsmarted the lights by unscrewing the light bulbs. I'm sure that there was some electrical wiring issue, but it was kind of creepy and also incredibly frustrating to be at war with the light switches all night. We had a good laugh about it in the morning when I found out that the same light switch battle was happening in the room full of cousins below me.

The day after Thanksgiving, we all went to Zermatt, a Swiss resort in Heber. They had the most fun life-size chess board; life-size for Blake anyway.

We pointed out various locations on this indicator by the chess board. We all posed by the Moscow locator for Troy's aunt and uncle who are serving as mission presidents there.

Tricia and Jacob are from opposite ends of the country.

Zermatt also had a carousel that everyone rode on, including Grandma Tanner. She hadn't been on a carousel since she was 20, but she saddled herself with ease and enjoyed the ride.

 Blake loved the carousel as well. He is still mentioning the "horses" we rode on two days later.

Our final event for the Thanksgiving that never ended was a stop at a quaint little train diner in Heber. Blake was in heaven as he watched all of trains and trucks on the ceiling and played with the train table. I don't think he has ever played that long with something independently; it's a good thing his birthday is in a week, because trains just may be involved.

We feel so blessed to have family nearby to create holiday memories with. We hope that you had a great Thanksgiving.