Thanksgiving With The In-Laws

My sister-in-law, Peggy, said as she headed home after our Thanksgiving Break family reunion, "Be kind to us on your blog!"

I had no intention to be anything but kind.  After all, I happen to have some fabulous in-laws.  Not perfect in-laws.  As Peggy, the organizer of the event can attest to, getting them all together is no easy task and once together, coming up with a group plan has to be at least as challenging as designing those ever-mysterious traffic signal algorithms.  I'll take their quirks any day, however, because each of them also happens to be wonderful.  Good, kind, fun, helpful, dedicated people who make the world a better, brighter place with their efforts.  Lucky me.

Jay's younger sister, Kelly, was the first to arrive and we had the pleasure to have them stay with us.  Jay's other two sisters, Molly and Peggy, and their families arrived on Wednesday and we had a delicious dinner of bbq pork sandwiches prepared by my mother-in-law.

Thanksgiving morning included a five mile Turkey Trot.  It was a bitter cold morning with temperatures in the tens and only the bravest and fittest dared the run.

Adam was a baby when I started dating Jay.  Now he is a star runner who treated those five miles like they were child's play.

Kelly is not to be messed with.  She is fast and competitive and it's fun to watch her run.

Karin, my oldest niece, got married to Ben this summer and he is a delightful addition to the family.  I think he had a smile on his face the entire time he was surrounded by the other 38 of us and is just a good, good guy.  He also managed to smile when he was running even when he said there was no air to breath at our bruising 7,000 ft altitude.

Here's my favorite runner and his new turquoise shorts so that I can spot him while he runs the memphis marathon this weekend. 

All of Peggy's boys ran, but I missed their finish.  I got their mom's brilliant finish, however.

The brave runners.

The equally brave cheerers.  Sadly, cheering while freezing doesn't burn that many calories.

Jay's two other brothers arrived in time for Thanksgiving Dinner and we got all the cousins in order of oldest to youngest.

Here they are in one single line (minus Caden who is being held by Doug).

Another format.  From left to right:  Ben, Karin, Scott, Derek, Michael, Jacob, Adam, Delanie, Doug, Reese
Thomas, Seth, Erin, Creed, Sam, Matt, Brooke, Emily, Kate, Henry, Sara, Ethan and Caden

It isn't a get together with Grandpa unless a pinata is involved.

The boy cousins

And the much fewer girl cousins

Grandpa Vaughn, who is currently serving as President of the Monticello Temple, shares some of the history of the temple, as well as some of the miracles associated with it, one in particular known as "The Miracle of the Green Windows."

We joke about being the out-laws but we are all lucky women to have married such fine men.  From left to right:  (Stephanie (holding Caden  married to Clark), Patty (Vaughn Jr.), Bekki (Rex) and me with my new brunette locks.

Table 1

Table 2

Table 3

And Table 4 where Jay and I sat.

On Friday, we headed to the Monticello Temple for a meaningful moment to gather at the temple where Jay's parent's serve.  It was really something to see all of Jay's siblings and spouses in the same session, as well as Karin and Ben.  Later, all the youth twelve and older did baptisms with their father's as ordinance workers.

Jay's lovely sisters, Molly, Kelly and Peggy

The boys:  Vaughn, Rex, Clark and Jay

Here's all the kids and spouses in order of age.  We stood in order of age of sibling with Clark, the youngest, on the left and Vaughn, the oldest, on the right.  I was totally bending my knees so that I wouldn't be huge Lucy in the middle.

My in-laws.

Here, I attempted some photo merging.  Obviously, Jay is facing the wrong direction in this picture.

And Vaughn's eyes are closed in this one.

So, I did a photo merge on Vaughn and Molly's side.  It's not perfect but it's not bad.  I had to do some extra cropping because Vaughn ended up with three legs but it'd do in a pinch.

It was a great week and a nice break from school for the boys.  Now, it's time to gear up for Christmas.  I guess I better start shopping.  And decorating.  And getting Christmas cards ready.

Wait...let's go back and do this week again instead.  Yup.  I like my in-laws so much I'd do it all again.  How's that for kind, Peggy? ;-)