Thanksgiving and more

Finally, pictures of our Thanksgiving with Jeff's family in Ohio. Sorry for taking so long to get them out. Jeff and I rotate going to Ohio for Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family here in Alabama. When we go up for Thanksgiving, we exchange gifts with his family. They are all gracious enough to get their shopping done for us by then and we all so appreciate it. We decided to open gifts Thursday night-After we had celebrated Thanksgiving. I like to keep the two holidays separate and make sure that we celebrate Thanksgiving before we start Christmas activities. It would have been nice to wait till Friday night, but we had planned to leave Saturday morning for home and that wouldn't give the boys much time to enjoy their presents-especially Jacob who still receives toys that you can "play" with if you know what I mean. So we all agreed to open them Thursday night. Dad set the time for 6:00 pm. That seemed like forever for Jacob, but we managed to hold him off that long.

Our boys spent Wednesday night with their cousins-Timmy and Christopher and came over around 11:30 am or so to Dad's house where we were going to eat Thanksgiving dinner. My dear sister-in-law told us she had a present for all five boys that she wanted them to go ahead and open when they arrived at dad's. Here they are getting ready to open them...

This is what they got..."Screaming Monkeys"! Joan found them at a book sale at the hospital where she works and thought the boys would love them. Of course they did! However, these things are possibly the most annoying toy every made! They have a soft body with a "rubber slingshot" built inside. When you shoot them across the room they scream madly and loudly! These type of toys have always been on my "hate list" if you will forgive me for calling it that. So all evening we got to enjoy the lovely sounds of "screaming monkey's". In fact that was the last thing I heard before I went to sleep (I was in bed, the cousins still up downstairs) and the first thing I heard the next morning. The are extremely sensitive, and if you accidentally bump one with your foot (if it just happens to have been left in the floor), it will scream. So Friday morning, very early, Dad is up and getting ready to make coffee when he bumps one or steps on one that has been left out-so we all woke up to a screaming monkey. I was really hoping they would be forgotten and left at dad's house till the next time we were up, but they made it into our suitcases and came home with us. Isn't he cute? Looks so innocent till you fire it off or accidentally touch the thing!! Jacob getting ready to fire his off. I think Timmy is going to shoot his at me.

Taylor getting ready to fly his through the air.

Jacob and I made turkey place cards for the table this year.

We all pitched in for the meal and it was delicious as usual. I had my first experience with cooking the turkey. Dad didn't feel up to cooking it that morning (he was fighting a cold that ended up turning into step throat the next week after we left). I was a little nervous since I hadn't done one before, but I quickly turned on Jeff's laptop, googled "easy roast turkey recipe" and came up with a really simple but delicious way to fix it.

The younger boys table. We can't all fit at the same table, but they were right there in the room with us. The adults table...

Clean-up duty! No need to say more...

Timmy taking his after dinner nap....either that or he is praying it will soon be time to open presents....??? Pop Pop bought an air hockey table last year and one of the things we did on Thanksgiving day was to have a "air hockey tournament ". Just about everyone participated

in it-even me the "non-sports person". I am NOT very good at it, and it had been a year since I had played. This is me getting ready to play my first game while Timmy,

Pop Pop and Jorden watched.I played Joan first, to which I was soundly beaten. After that I warmed up some and played Taylor whom I beat, then I played Jorden and he ended up beating me by 1 point. I think eventually interest dwindled and there was no over all winner. Opening presents became the center of our focus.

Chris with our three boys right before we opened gifts. They were so excited!!

Jeff received a lot of new Ohio State stuff from his family. Joe bought him this garbage can for his new office. Doesn't he look pleased? ha! Go Buckeyes!! Pop Pop bought Jorden Monopoly-Electronic Banking. That is right up his alley so to speak. He loves math, economics and monopoly!

Jacob loves Lego's more than just about anything and he is pretty good at building things. He amazes us with some of the things he comes up with. He got a couple of new sets from Pop Pop and his cousins and of course had to open them and start right away building them. They have pretty difficult directions, but he always figures them out and puts them together.

I know someday I will miss all the little Lego pieces strewn all over my house. (But I WILL NOT miss stepping on a piece while barefoot in the middle of the night!)

Taylor and Jacob both asked for Webkinz stuffed animals this year for Christmas. Taylor wanted the chipmunk and he named it "Chippy". He is very fat! It reminds me of Pop Pop's squirrel's that he feeds off his deck. They are huge! Jacob opening his webkinz deer. It is so cute! Jacob named it "Spot".

Pop Pop opening one of his gifts from us. Big Tim works at the airport, outside in the cold weather and he asked for a Auburn sweatshirt to help keep him warm. We also got him a CD of Greater Vision. He loves southern gospel music as much as we do. Taylor is in the background watching Chris open a gift.

Both Joan and I collect "polish pottery". She actually got me started with it. Jeff and I got her this pitcher and a saucer that matches. It is hard to find and pretty expensive. This is the stars pattern and we both love it. I have several pieces of this pattern also.

Our nephew Timmy (17) plays the drums in his high school marching band. He is really into it. He constantly "drums" on everything. Jeff and I gave him a new set of drumsticks for Christmas. His mom was so thrilled! ha! She says that makes up for her giving my kids the "screaming monkeys". I don't think so. I think I still owe her for that one.

This makes Timmy's third set of drumsticks (I think-it could be more than that).

I am pretty sure I am glad our boys only play piano right now. :-) Between the screaming monkey's and Timmy trying out his new drumsticks...well you can imagine.

Jorden looks pretty excited with his new PS2 game. Taylor is still opening his gift. I think it is a Cleveland Indians baseball. Jacob has just opened a remote controlled helicopter.

Dad Messner has a civil war game on his computer that all the boys love to play. This is where they spent a lot of their time. (Downstairs in the family room) I needed a group picture of all the grandchildren. It is very hard to get them all to cooperate at the same time. You can see the "screaming monkeys" in a couple of their hands. We love going to Ohio to spend time with our family there. The boys have some wonderful memories that they talk about over and over. It had been nearly a year since we were able to go up with our going to the Grand Canyon this past summer. We really missed it and are already looking forward to going back to Ohio this coming summer. We also saw Jeff's cousins Tim and Shelia Messner and Jeff's Aunt and Uncle- Esther and Keith Messner at church on Sunday. We had wanted to have Keith and Esther over to Dad's one day, but we had so many things going on it didn't work out, we were very disappointed. Our time up there is so short (a week just flies by). We wish we could just hold on to each day and make them last a little longer.

Tomorrow Mom and I are going on a field trip (again) this time with Jorden and his class. It ought to be really fun. We are going to one of my favorite places, however, it is supposed to be COLD and most of this field trip takes place outside. Yikes! We are still waiting on the "snow" they predicted. Ha!

I will have pictures next week of Jorden's field trip to show you. And, IF by chance we get a snowflake or two, I will post pictures of that too. Believe me, it will make the news if we get any.