Thanksgiving in Texas

 Remember 2020? We all had such big plans. One of those plans was for Scotty to get baptized. Aaron's brother William, who also lives in Texas, arranged to have time off that whole week, and we told the Dennis clan to come down to Texas for a family reunion/Scotty's baptism. Well, that was April 2020, so we all know what happened. Scotty got baptized in a nearly empty church with the family watching on Zoom. It was still a wonderful day, but not quite what we'd imagined!

Fast forward a year and a half. The Dennis clan transferred their tickets to the week of Thanksgiving, and we had the Dennis Family Reunion: Texas Edition. 

The official reunion was Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Everyone arrived on Monday. On Tuesday we hung out at our house. The kids explored the forest. It was Rylan's birthday. We took family pictures. And we went to Rudy's for dinner. On Wednesday we went to Enchanted Rock. This time we did the cave. It was fun and the weather was perfect. We came home and made pies. On Thursday we did the 2nd Annual Dennis Family Turkey Trot. And had Thanksgiving feast. We did a puzzle and played some games. We also had an update-type chat with the adults at some point.

It was fun and loud and great to be together and to see so many wonderful family members in our home. 

Epic fruit and veggie trays made by Russell and Russell:

On Friday, Aaron and I stayed home and snuggled babies while everyone else went to see the Alamo.

Campfires. So cheap and so fun. The men spent a good portion of the day on Sunday trying to start a friction fire. The fire pictured here was a match fire. 

Now, a few thoughts about reunions:

It is hard to be the host. The hard part for me is having people ask questions. Of course guests have to ask the host questions: Do you have more toilet paper? Where do you keep your mixing bowls? Where's the nearest Walmart? What time are we eating? etc. These are things people need to know, and the host has the answers. But it was pretty overwhelming. It made me wonder what could be done to mitigate this element of hosting. Probably a lot. I'm still thinking about it.

We knew it was going to be crowded to have us all in our house. And it was. But everything was better when we moved the TV upstairs to the playroom. The kids and their games and their noises followed the TV and gave the adults a bit of their own space. 

Aaron and I thought to ourselves this time around that we would just plan the food and have everybody else chip in money. I thought somehow that would be easier. And maybe it would have been if I had enough freezer and fridge space for all of the food that we would need. But instead I ended up going to the store about fifty times during the week everyone was here. That was the opposite of relaxing.

So there are some things we would do differently next time. But is was still really good. We were so happy everyone made the effort to come and be with us. Everyone was very helpful and willing to do whatever was needed. We are very blessed to be part of such a great family!

Birthdays

 Aaron turned 40 this year and Annie turned 12. Both numbers with significance. Sometimes it kind of weirds me out to think of being married to a 40 year old. But then I remember it's just Aaron, and I'm almost 35, not 21. And then it's not weird anymore😊 

40, though, it does feel like a milestone. 

Annie got a Maker Crate (from KiwiCo) with stuff for making pinatas. So she made pinatas for both birthdays. 

Annie had a small birthday party with a few of our co-op friends. They had a late-over. These co-op friends (in the pictures and another boy who wasn't able to come) are such great kids! I'm so glad Annie can have such good influences in her life, kids who have their heads on straight. 

Halloween 2021

 Halloween was a doozy this year! I was too ambitious on the costumes. They turned out good, but it was absolutely shocking how much time and money and mental energy it took to make them happen. And even with all of that I wasn't completely satisfied with them. If I'd been more skilled, my efforts would have paid off a little bit more. But it was a learning experience for sure. Whew!

Here was my inspiration picture:

And here we were:

Okay, it was all worth it! We looked amazing! (As long as you don't look too closely. And Scotty's hand on my shoulder is just a little bit creepy because you aren't sure whose body it's connected to!) Oh my goodness, so much work! It's all coming back to me.

Our ward had lots of great costumes this year. It was fun to see everyone. We also ran a game for the kiddos. It was pumpkin/ghost toilet paper bowling. It worked out pretty well. And Han Solo did some TP stacking at the end.

Of course Annie got in on the costume fun. She did How to Train Your Dragon 3.0. This year she was a character named Heather from the TV series. We offered to let her be Chewbacca, but she wasn't feeling the Star Wars theme. Haha, actually, if she had wanted to join our family costume she probably would have been a different Leia with Scotty as a Luke. And Aaron and I would have still been Endor Leia and Han. Anyway, she looked great as Heather!

Many long hours were spent thinking about the back of this breastplate! Good job, Annie. You're a costume-making marvel!