Thanksgiving was nice. My parents and sister Alyssa decided to make a last minute visit to AZ to meet Lucy and so we enjoyed their presence at dinner. Todd, a bit of a foodie, ordered a Turducken off the Internet after much research. Jared and I like Turducken (at least the one Todd bought) which is quite surprising since neither of us like Turkey. The years we have done our own Thanksgiving (which gratefully have been few) we had a Thanksgiving salmon. We also do a Christmas salmon (usually) and sometimes an Easter salmon. (Any excuse for salmon.) Carey and I were worried about having enough dessert since we added 4 adults (Grandma Ellen moved in with the Baileys) to our normal roster plus Jacob is entering teen years in less than a month. I brought a pecan pie, a chocolate pecan pie, 1/2 gallon of ice cream and chocolate chip cheesecake squares. Carey provided a Gooey Butter Pumpkin Cake(sorry about the song now stuck in your head), quart of fresh whipped cream and a Costco pumpkin pie (Alyssa was sad she had not had any pumpkin pie the previous year in Portugal, canned pumpkin is apparently an American item). I liked the recipes I found and modified just a little bit so I will post them. We did have enough dessert for 8 adults and 8 kids and plenty for leftovers for both families. The kids played well and hard all day long. We left their house way later than usual (after 9 PM) and Elijah was as tired as I have ever seen him but still begging to stay longer.

Friday morning Maxwell woke up and the first words out of his mouth to Jared were, "You didn't take down the Thanksgiving decorations yet? It's not even close to Thanksgiving." My dad, Uncle Todd, Jared, and Grandma Ellen(Todd's mom) took all kids age 8 and older to complete the Summit Hike of Piestewa Peak in North Phoenix and then to a Mexican restaurant (hole in the wall) in the South Central ghettoey area of Phoenix (by Chase Field home of the D-backs). Jared liked Carolina's so much that he saved it in his phone and plans on taking the family there before a Dbacks game(during daylight hours naturally). Saturday morning Maxwell informed Jared he wanted to go do the hike. Hopefully Jared will post more about the hike as I was not there and instead took care of Seth, Xander, and Maxwell. Elijah made it to the top of the peak with the encouragement(pushing and pulling) only a father can provide. I would have babied him a bit probably. Jennie also made it to the top and Jared said it was pretty fun to watch her coming up wearing her Wonder Woman t-shirt.

Saturday morning my parents and Alyssa stopped by on their way out of town and brought delicious Einstein's bagels over for us all. I was especially grateful as their much talk about missing tasty bagels throughout the week had left me wanting some and I was quite tempted to go to Einstein's and fork over the cash despite my cheapskatedness. Although they have grown to love Idaho (especially the Idahoans) they really miss some of the niceties of the East coast such as bagelries and bakeries. They especially miss the shopping. I guess the selection in Idaho Falls is not all that great. We spent Saturday working hard together as a family to clean the house and work on the yard. None of us stopped until 3:20 when I remembered Elijah's friend was getting baptized so we hurried and got ready for that. The kids are really excited about getting the Christmas decorations up which really helped keep them motivated. Maxwell and I brought in the boxes of decorations in from the garage and he has been dying to get them out. Last night he even tried to convince me to get started while they were all snugly sleeping in their beds. I politely declined as I was quite ready for a break.

Sunday the church building drama continued. Last week we only had Sacrament meeting which none of us were sad about at all because of a leak and mold problem. They have ripped out the bathrooms and the South end of the building is completely taped off. The South end includes the Relief Society and Primary rooms. Our Stake leadership decided we could not continue meeting for only Sacrament meeting (despite all of us happily sacrificing the last few hours of church) and so our ward is currently scheduled to meet from 3-6 PM at the Stake Center which already houses two family wards and a University ward. The other ward from our building lucked out and got to meet at the other building in our Stake that only houses one other ward. I am worried because our Primary activity of singing at the Assisted Living Center is scheduled for 3:30 PM on the 14th which normally would be an hour after church gets out. Hopefully the repairs and rebuild will go quickly. Things I learned yesterday: Primary children, 8 years and older, get really hyper meeting in a different building especially when it is dark outside with an hour of church to go. Some of the kids will "get lost" on the way from their new classrooms to the Primary room. I went and rounded a few up and got a gentlemen out of Priesthood to round up some of the Young Men. Primary children, 5 and younger, get nervous in a new situation, especially Max. Maxwell had tears in his eyes at the end of Sacrament meeting worrying that he didn't know where to go. I assured him that it would be okay and I knew where he was supposed to be. However, at the end of church, the teachers dismissed their kids early and I didn't get to Max fast enough and he was silently crying while looking for me in the quickly darkening building. Can't we just leave all of the lights on until all the children have found their parents. When it is pitch black outside the hall lights are not enough to reassure and calm some kids.

Have a happy holiday season. I love it!