THANKSGIVING! The actual day

It is important to note that we wanted a lot of leftovers.

We have never hosted Thanksgiving before and traveling to people's houses for the holidays, you never get the leftovers you want.  Because we want a lot of them.  Some years have seen us making a new bird as soon as we got home, but that's a lot of work.  BOY IS IT, as we now know after making whole damn meal.

So, anyway, that's why I found 2 breasts soaking in my tub on Thursday morning.

 I left Ben to turkey prep and took the kids to my parents' hotel for breakfast and swimming.  And by the way, I totally thought they were going to get kicked out of the place because they were NOT COOL AT ALL, eating tons of waffles and mounds of bacon.

 Jack loves nothing more than a hotel breakfast, as I think I have mentioned here before

 Harry saw this infomercial for a sock sider thing for old people who have trouble putting on their socks and was all hey grandma, you;re old, you should use this thing.  HE'S THE BEST. 

 (But! His fascination with as seen on TV products led me to order the gifts for an as seen on TV night of Hanukkah!)

Cooper FINALLY let me wear his awesome turkey crown, and then about died laughing because I put it on backwards.

 The children, of course, needed to eat lunch (hot dogs and grilled cheese) even though the grown ups were walking around virtuously starving.  But my parents and I took noon as a good time to start drinking champagne.  And then we just didn't stop.  Pro-tip:  THIS IS THE PERFECT WAY TO HOST THANKSGIVING.

 Jack's fancy Thanksgiving outfit.  At first glance, you may think the best part if the disguise, but that's because you didn't see the free bounce house place socks. Most of the boys' socks are free bounce house place socks.

 I wore a totally fab dress from ThredUp, and I tried all day to get a good pic.  This was not it.

 SO PROUD OF HIS BIRD.  (Also those rolls on the stovetop totally over rose and turned into bread blobs.  Th only other FAIL besides the pie, and they still tasted fine)/

 I made punch for the kids because why should the grown ups get all the fun drinks?

 Pretty not totally sober here.

 Cooper loved helping himself to the punch.  My cabinets will forever be sticky, btw.

 Such a pretty little table!  My mom made the centerpiece.  Also, you guys, THE BREAD BASKET with my MUTANT ROLLS.

We put the apps out while my dad was on an ill-advised trip with all of the children to buy Nerf darts.

 And then everyone milled aorund and ate for awhile.

We also figured out where to set up the camera for a family shot.  That Cooper made perfect.

 Ta-da!

 Why yes, yes I would like more champagne.

 Sneaking upstairs to see about dinner.

 Another shot of the table and the rolls that almost ate us because I liked it.

 BABY HENRY!

 My little ham

 Cooper borrowed my camera and took a close up of the Jello that he also stuck his fat hand in

 I also found about 17 versions of this shot:

 FOOD!!

 Okay, how about ONE MORE TABLE SHOT?

The kids destroyed the basement with darts (THANKS, DAD), and I did some moderate clean up before we brought out the desserts.  And some fat asshole ate a piece of chocolate pie before I could even take a pic.  Oh wait  THAT WAS ME.

 She's so fancy, you guys.

In fact, this is her fancy pose:

If you look closely at the dessert pc, you will see that I put out my Christmas tree plates because dessert is technically AFTER THANKSGIVING dinner.  I am so clever!  

 And then we put the kids to bed and cleaned everything up at watched Get Out and ate almost all of the fudge.  (Just kidding.  My dad made literally 12 pounds of fudge-- I am still eating it-- it's the best).  Beatrix, as you can see, was totally into it.