Stott Thanksgiving

So yesterday I was able to enjoy a wonderful turkey dinner. I know, a little early considering Thanksgiving isn't until Thursday; however, we had it yesterday so there. The saddest part was that Andrew wasn't there to enjoy it, but I made sure to take lots of pictures so he would see everyone. It is very interesting to see how different families celebrate their holidays. I love the variety usually, but there are some things that can be stressful. Such as, no one having specific food assignments, just the "bring a side-dish" request to fill. Or the start time having no real relevance to actual modern methods of telling time! I love it, but the chaos lasts throughout. I don't think my OCD side handles it very well. People filtering through the kitchen so each one can open the oven, lift the lid off every pot and stand with the fridge open to see what we are going to eat. I grew up where that was not done. The fridge and oven were never allowed to be opened due to the fact that "we aren't heating the neighborhood" or whatever the argument was against it. I used to think it was ridiculous until I started to pay my own bills, and then all of the sudden a light bulb went off in my head. Now it drives me up the wall when people do it!

Of the 10 kids we ended up with a pretty good turnout. Doug's huge family, Dan's little family, Julie came with her 3 kids, Rachel and Ryan didn't make it, I don't know if it counts for Victor since he didn't show until clean up time (6 hours after we first got there...), Andrew gone but I was there, Crystal with her family, and Laura with hers. No Nick as he is stationed at 29 Palms in Cali. The newlyweds were there (dad- Lamont and Connie). I think it will be awesome when my side of the family gets to the point where we have to reserve the church for thanksgiving too!

And of course it wouldn't be a Stott Thanksgiving without a pinata. Yes, a pinata. I still am not clear as to the origins other than they have done it forever. They fill it with candy and have tons of prizes they leave out. Each prize is assigned a number and the corresponding number can be found taped to the candy. Then once the candy is flying it is a free for all. Then Grandpa hands out the prizes in numerical order. Sounds fun right? In my opinion, not so much. Mostly because there was like 120 prizes and the kids lost interest at about 25. So then it was the adults trying to get it together and kids running around the building. Utter chaos! Oh well, as long as folks have fun and have time to bond it is worth it.