the (sorta) thanksgiving post

I say "sorta" because if you look at the following pictures...you'll realize that I took hardly ANY pictures at all! So, really, this almost doesn't deserve a post! But, since it IS Thanksgiving...and since the true meaning behind the holiday isn't about fancy pictures or even of the food, I thought I'd at least post SOME pictures of our evening and briefly describe our fun day.

And it was!

A fun day, I mean.

So...where to begin? Well, since Mitch happened to be flying, I was pretty much "flying solo" this year. We had our kalua turkey cooking overnight in our Boy Scouts' IMU pit this year-as we did last year-and it definitely saved me a TON of time in the kitchen Thursday morning. Though to be honest, I still managed to spend the entire morning in the kitchen anyway...

BUT, with Mitch gone, it was one less thing for me to have to stress over.

So, for our family gathering, I brought (aside from our kalua turkey) fresh baked rolls, stuffing, and a pumpkin cheesecake with Oreo cookie crust.

Ta~da~!

My pumpkin cheesecake cupcakes with Oreo crust on bottom.

It may not look all that spectacular...but I thought it was yummy.

And despite my GD...YES, I happily brought home some leftovers.

So...I didn't take any pictures of the actual food.

I mean, everyone knows what turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing looks like, right?

But this was our dessert spread.

I do believe we had more dessert than food.

Here's Kela with her cousins Rumi and Aya enjoying their Thanksgiving dinner. As well as each other's company!


And Anna.
Eating her salad like a good girl.
Jolee took a late nap that day and slept all through dinner.
And then woke up just in time for the traditional Karaoke singing session at my sister Airi's. (no pictures there because, well...who wants to look at pictures of us singing?!)

Anyway, even with Mitch gone, we managed to have a fun, fun day!
I was exhausted by the time we got home...which was right about the time that Mitch also finished work, so after putting the kids to bed I got to enjoy a second helping of Thanksgiving dinner with just Mitch and I.
And yes, I was thankful for that as well.


Okay, and this picture has NOTHING to do with our Thanksgiving day...but since Jolee slept through most of last night's festivities, I thought I'd throw in a picture of her from Friday morning.
She enjoys coloring. And cutting.
So long as she refrains from cutting any digits, or her clothing...I'm usually okay with her doing this.
I hope that doesn't make me a bad parent.

Wait, don't answer that...

I hope you all had just as enjoyable and happy a Thanksgiving holiday as we did! I could go on and on and list all the things I am thankful for...but I'll just keep it short and sweet and say that I feel truly blessed to have a wonderful family - immediate and extended - that keep me busy, but blissfully happy. I am thankful for my health, for the roof over my head, for a steady income that makes all the material things we have possible...and for our Heavenly Father who makes EVERYTHING ELSE possible (...and Eternal!).

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Now...are you ready for CHRISTMAS?!