Family and Friends

This is my Mama Llama. She hates having her picture taken.

As I mentioned, she arrived safely, and she got here just in time to stay on top of the dishes I've been dirtying in my cooking frenzy. Thanks, Mom!

Here's my Mama Llama in the kitchen with Renee. Renee brought her own apron because she knew I was putting her to work on the gravy as soon as she got here.

She doesn't like my gravy boats. She thinks they're too tiny and she let me know how inadequate they were. Also, I don't have a fat separator.

Seriously, do you think I would be rotund if I knew I could separate fat with a kitchen hoojit?

Guess what I'm getting for Christmas.

By the way, this year I brined a turkey for the first time, and it was excellent. The breast meat was very moist and tender, so I will definitely do it again. I'm more of a dark meat person, but I was chowing down on the white meat today.

I didn't have any monsters in the kitchen bugging me today, because they were all downstairs with Peanut Head and the Wii. Everyone is hooked on the Wii.

Last weekend we introduced Smashley to it and she got hooked on the tennis. She was playing with Peanut Head and really getting into it.

So much that she lunged for a ball, smacked Thing 2 in the head, and broke the Wii remote. We had to buy another remote and this time I got insurance on it. I highly recommend insurance on the remotes if nothing else.

Oh yeah, and Thing 2 is okay. 

When we replaced the remote, we also bought the Wii rackets with the soft ends that the remotes fit into, hoping to protect the remotes a little better. When we got them home, the girls were smacking themselves in the head with them and saying "Oh yeah, this doesn't hurt. Smashley can hit us with these and it won't hurt at all."

Kids.

This is Colleen, Smashley's little girl. She's a little cutie, isn't she?

And here's her little boy, Garrett. We just call him Garr Bear.

He has a veeeeeery high pitched little voice and he loooooooves to push Zoe's buttons.

Don't we all?

Here's Peanut Head and Renee's son, Marmaduke, playing the Wii together. They spent the entire day downstairs, catatonic like this.

This is why I call him Marmaduke. He's like 7 feet tall.

His real name's Dacey Byron.

Well, actually it's Dace, but we don't need real names around here.

And Renee, aka The Renaissance Woman, with her inquiring look. The only way I can get her picture is to catch her off guard.

And finally, here's Smashley with her husband, Patrick. Aren't they sweet?

We had a really nice day eating, visiting, eating, playing and eating. I couldn't ask for a better day.

Good food, good friends, and family. There's nothing better.

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving too.