Happy Thanksgiving!

We are late in writing about Thanksgiving because we were having too much fun to sit down at the computer! For Thanksgiving we had the special treat of hosting the Gunnell family (Boyd's parents, siblings and their families). To keep the young children busy while dinner was being prepared, we had a craft activity. It was supposed to be a simple craft of making salt and pepper shakers into pilgrims and indians. Michelle had pre-cut paper to glue onto the shakers. But she put Lindsay in charge of carrying out the project, and Lindsay took the craft to the next level - hats, buckles, feathers in headbands. Bryce even gave one of the "boy" pilgrims a gun for the turkey shoot!

Here are Erin, Ashli, Bryce and Lindsay hard at work on the pilgrims and indians.

We cooked our turkeys in the pit again this year, and they turned out great! The only way to cook turkey for Thanksgiving. Finally dinner was ready, but Michelle made everyone wait while she introduced each person (so they would know who they were sitting next to at dinner). Here are Ashli, Max, Kathleen, Collin, Amanda, Bryce and Margaret Gunnell (Boyd's mom).

Grandpa Dahl made the trip over from Phoenix to join us. (Dick & Judy brought him.)

Then we have Boyd, Lindsay, Dick, Daniel Gunnell, Matt Allen (Julie's husband) and Brent Gunnell.

To complete the circle we have Judy, Erin Fletcher, Andrew Fletcher, Mary Beth Fletcher, Vaun Gunnell (Boyd's dad) Audrey & Shannon Fletcher, Julie Allen (holding Henry) and Adam. Thomas Fletcher was there too (the Fletcher's youngest) but he was not caught in the picture - although Luna is front and center waiting for any tasty morsel to hit the floor.

The weather was beautiful so we ate on the patio to enjoy the lovely Arizona autumn day.

In no time we had consumed the turkey with all the trimmings - yummmmm - and were ready to hit the dessert table. Lindsay made a delicious pumpkin cheesecake to accompany pumpkin pie, pumpkin bars, pecan pie, jumbleberry pie, brownies, homemade caramels and gingersnaps. We also had key lime pie made with limes from our mexican lime tree. Since it was our fall harvest, we renamed the pie "Harvest Lime Pie". It was delicious too.

After dinner always comes the clean up. We couldn't have done it without Judy and Kathleen. They lead the way in getting everything put away in containers and washing up the millions of dishes, pots and pans that wouldn't fit in the dishwashers.

After dinner it was time to work off some calories to make room for dessert. Collin and Dan matched up for a little ping pong.

Since the Gunnell family was coming from Seattle, Boston and Provo areas, we heated up the pool because the day was so lovely and enjoyed some swimming in the evening to burn off some more calories. We had installed new lights in the backyard, so after swimming we used up everyone's last bit of holiday energy with a couple games of ultimate frisbee. What a day! Good food, good friends and family, and lots of fun times. A memorable Thanksgiving.