For all this we give thanks

Thanksgiving dinner was one of the best ever. We ended up with 32 people sitting around a huge table that took up the entire dining room and living room (with couches moved to other rooms).
The night before, my two eldest nieces, Candyd (12) and Harley Kane (12 in 2 weeks)came over and I taught them how to bake pies. We made a couple of pumpkins and one apple.
We got up early the next morning and planned out our cooking strategy for the day. They were surprised at how much math is involved in planning and executing a thanksgiving dinner. We plotted out all the various preparation and cooking times, with the goal of a 5 pm dinner. They really did a great job, and were very attentive to the details. It was particularly sweet to not have to do all the peeling and chopping myself.

Everything came off like clockwork, and we sat down exactly at 5. Amazingly, everyone was actually on time (a rarity in a predominantly filipino family, where time exists only as a vague concept). For the blessing each person at the table spoke of something they were thankful for in the past year. We blessed the food and dug in. Ahh, it was so good!

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A bunch of the kids stayed over after thanksgiving and we went to the movies . The unanimous choice was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I bought the tickets online and it was a good thing, because by the time we got to the theatre, all the tickets were sold out.

After the movie we rented a bunch of videos and spent the evening watching movies and eating leftovers. They spent the night again, and Arlina just now took them home after a big breakfast of Pancakes and sausage. Over breakfast we got into the game of choices: Would you rather go to school for a month wearing the same clothes, or go to school for a month without taking a bath, and so on. I was surprised by the variety of choices they were able to come up with. One even involved raccoon poop!

The house is completely quiet for the first time in three days. I like the quiet, but I miss the kids. I am blessed to be the favorite uncle of so many beautiful little nieces and nephews. For this I give thanks.