The Cruise Family Thanksgiving

It's Turkey Day. Our family loves eachother, and loves to eat. Naturally, Thanksgiving is one of our favorite holidays. We started our Thanksgiving day festivities with the Cruise family. It was a large crowd, and it was only immediate family. Grandma Cruise was there, our family: Kevin, Sara, Natalie, Kendall, Nolan, and Kristen, Kevin's sister Shelly and her family: Tom, Molly, Maureen, Nicole, Greg, and Alex, Kevin's sister Cassie and her family: Todd, Josh, Brittney, Morgan, Seth, Alaina, Taryn, and Caelin, Kevin's brother Jake and his family: Jenn and Ayden, also Sandy (a very close family friend)was there, and Morgan and Josh's girlfriends joined us. So, that would be... 29 people. All 4 of Grandma Cruise's children and 17 of the 19 grandchildren made it to have dinner together. The only two that couldn't make it were Andrew (he was with his mom), and Cassie's and Todd's son, John, who is training in California to go to Iraq in January. They were very missed. This year the family rented a building because we simply wouldn't all fit in anyone's house. It was very nice there, it even had a fireplace. Spending time with eachother today was the perfect way to spend Thanksgiving. Except for a few smoke alarm scares (well, really more scared that the sprinklers may go off), and a blown circuit, which we were locked out of the room with the breaker in it...(good thing it happened after almost everything was cooked), it was a very nice time together.










Before dinner, the children played board games. The adults finished up getting food ready, and everyone was having a nice time visiting. Everyone waited very patiently... yes, even Nolan (for that, I am thankful). We also enjoyed many pre-meal snacks: chips and dip, mini meatballs, cheese and pepperoni with crackers, pickles, olives, and lots of other yummy snacks.





















For dinner there were 3 big turkeys, stuffing, cornbread, mashed potatoes, scalloped corn, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, and rolls. Everyone helped make dinner, and everyone did a great job.










Dinner was delicious. We all ate ourselves silly, but we skipped desert because we had to be a Gammy's for another meal. We loved our time with our family today!