Thanksgiving

We were brim to overflowing with blessings this Thanksgiving season as the relatives rolled in. Mom and Dad came, of course. Reagan and Allen drove all the way from Maryland with their little ones. The cherry on top was my brother Logan, sister in law Krystal and their two kids. I'm SO glad we could get Logan et al out here! After I had Liesel, Krystal flew out to Boston to help out and stayed in our dumpy little apartment. It was nice to host them in a legitimate house! We had Lou Malnati's Pizza and Buffalo Wings N Rings and we all met up at the MSI and Reagan took everyone's picture. Those memories will keep us warm for a long time. 

I have to give a shout out to Allen. We'd noticed our clothes were coming out of the dryer pretty wet. Thinking it was the heating mechanism, we utilized our home warranty to get a repair guy out to the house. He fixed that portion of it but told us if the vent was clogged, we'd have to get another professional to take care of it... and he didn't have any recommendations. We'd had our chimney inspected recently and they said they "looked" at it but turns out it wasn't anything more than literally, looking at the vent from the outside. To get them out again would be around $300. 

I was running errands with Reagan when all this came to a head and she called Allen and asked him to look at it. Allen found access to the vent through our closet. Turns out there's enough attic space up there for a whole 3rd floor! He took apart the vent, found the tool used to replace light bulbs up in the chandeliers and started pulling out masses of soaked lint. He even went to Home Depot to get parts. Whaaaaaat? He cleaned it out completely and put it all back together. Oh how I could have kissed him! Reagan's right, Allen is good at that stuff.

On to Thanksgiving. The meal was positively delicious. We divvied up the food assignments so everyone could concentrate on just a couple of components. I decided to try my hand at gravy because I had heard it's really not that hard. Turns out that's true, it's pretty easy. We ended up running out because it was sooooo yummy! I'm still ridiculously proud of it. 

 It's all in the gravy!

 Allen made apple pie... he's clearly excited.

Brent made the mashed potatoes... he's clearly excited!

 Everyone was supposed to be gathering around the table and just Sydney and Dad had actually sat down. Here she is looking at him across the table (see his striped shirt in the reflection of the window?)

Logan and Krystal's little crew were back in Iowa for Thanksgiving Day, but we really enjoyed them while they were here!