Thanksmas 2020!

Last year we started a new tradition of having Thanksmas with my family. Normally at Thanksgiving we all go our separate ways. We go to Oregon to be with Michael's family, my parents go to my Aunt and Uncle's house and Ryan & Steph spend the holiday with her family. Last year Steph suggested having our own Thanksgiving the Saturday after the actual holiday. I thought it was a great idea and decided it should be called Thanksmas! 

Last year Mom and Dad let me borrow all their nice white china since I don't have a set that's big enough for all of us. That was a lot of dishes to pack up and then also wash. This year while shopping with my mom, I found these cute Pioneer Woman paper plates, napkins and tablecloths that all matched. 

My parents dropped the tables the week of Thanksmas and Michael set them up all up. The day of Thanksmas, Pa did the place settings for each table. 

I loved the fall colors on the plates and the message gather. Also these plates were more like a cross between a plate and a bowl. So much room for lots of yummy food! 

Ga-Ga & Pa did bring up their nice silverware for us to use. That was much easier than bring up dishes for  15 people! 

We set all the food on the dining room table and then ate on the tables set up in the garage. Look at all that yummy food. 

All the ladies that helped make this meal possible. Honestly they really do. I made the turkey, mashed potatoes and roasted carrots. Everything else is divided up between the other families. It really takes the pressure off of me! 

I made this cranberry pineapple and lime ginger ale. It's so yummy! 

I used Michael's electric roaster again for the turkey and it turned out good. It's not the same as roasting it in the oven and getting the skin super crispy. Next year we plan to buy a smoker so we'll have a smoked turkey. 

Cinnamon Butter Baked Carrots are one of my favorite dishes! 

When it was time to pray for the food we gathered around the table and held hands. I have no idea what Michael even prayed I was trying to keep myself from bursting into tears. I was so completely overwhelmed with happiness at being surrounded by the people I love. God is so incredibly good and I felt that all the way to my core. 

 

Dig in!!! 

Jackson wanted the whole turkey leg. Of course he didn't eat the whole thing! 

Kids table! 

Chowing down! 

Beautiful girls! 

Ladies table! 

Guys table minus Pa since he's taking the picture. I took a picture with all the guys, but accidentally cut off Papa Martin's head. Oops! 

Last year we had the trailer in the garage so it felt a little closed in. This year with the pool table it felt like there was more room and not so closed in. 

We had such a nice time visiting. The guys mainly stayed in the garage while us ladies sat in the living room on the more comfy furniture! 

Always have to get a picture with my wonderful friend! 

Papa & Miss Ruth were so sweet they got each family a gift basket. 

This fun one with trucks was for Ga-Ga & Pa. 

Here was our basket. It had a card with $20 and a printed out flyer for the Holiday Magic lights at the Fairgrounds. It also had, hot chocolate packets, peppermint spoons, cups, napkins, word searches for each kid, pencils, jingle bell bracelet for Ella and then a brain teasers for each of the boys. Such thoughtful gifts. 

I just love these sweet boys and their friendship. Wish so badly that we lived closer to each other! 

These girls too! They asked if they could do each others makeup. I also tell Ella...light makeup. When I saw her I was like whoa...that's a lot of makeup. Turns out it was Addison that did her makeup and Christina wasn't even surprised by it...that girl likes her makeup! :) Ella did Addison's makeup and you couldn't even tell she was wearing any!  

Here was our crew for Thanksmas! 

Family is most definitely something to be thankful for! 

Halloween 2020 AKA...The Holiday That Didn't Get Canceled!

When I first started hearing that Halloween might be canceled it made me so incredibly upset! These kids have been through enough already. Seriously it was absolutely lunacy at it's finest! 

You're telling me we can go to the Starbucks, Safeway, the bank and McDonald's and all the other places we go and come in contact with people and take things they given us, but for some reason we can't let people hand out store bought candy to kids. Are you seeing the double standards here people? Are you feeling the corruption yet? Are you waking up to the lunacy of this entire situation?

Well I wasn't going to let all this stupidity stop my kids from having a great Halloween. I contacted Christina and my parents to see if they were up for a fun night. We weren't sure if my mom and dad's neighborhood would hand out candy, but judging by how amazingly they celebrated the 4th of July I figured it was a safe bet that we'd have Trick or Treating after all. 

I came up with a plan for some fun Halloween themed food, a Halloween craft with prizes courtesy of Pa and hoped with good reason that we'd get to Trick or Treating. 

The ladies in the kitchen...makin' it happen! I went shopping at The Dollar Tree and got some fun themed paper products and a table cloth for the island. 

Some of the food...fake plastic eyeballs make everything spooky! 

Halloween Chex Mix...which barely anyone ate so next time I'll skip this one! 

Christina's cute Ghost Brownies! 

Also fun Apple Treats! 

Deviled Eggs with spiders on them. These were more difficult to make than I thought they'd be so we only did every other one! 

Christina also made this fun spooky dessert pizza! We were surrounding by lots of yummy food that's for sure! 

The warm food was Mummy Hot Dogs and then BBQ Chipotle Chicken Wings. 

The Mummy Dogs had little dabs of mustard for eyes. 

The punch was supposed to be green, but I couldn't find lime sherbet so I used raspberry instead. It was super yummy. Cranapple juice, pineapple juice, Sierra Mist and raspberry sherbet. 

For our craft we need cardstock, scissors and glue sticks. Christina also bought some fun Halloween stickers. 

There goal was to create a pumpkin that was either spooky or goofy. 

I always have this idea of what the kids might do and I'm always surprised by their creativity. 

Ella wanted her pumpkin to be a perfect circle so she used a plate to trace the circle. 

Working working working! 

When I come up with the crafts I have for the kids I'm always thinking in the back of my mind how the kids are going to rush through it and then get back to playing with their friends. I was pleasantly surprised by how long it took the kids to create their pumpkins. 

The stickers were such a fun addition. I'm so glad that Christina thought of that. 

Caleb took his pumpkin to the next level and went 3D. 

Owen created a spooky pumpkin! 

Jack went the goofy route! 

I asked Caleb if he thought his was spooky or goofy and he said creative! It was definitely that!!! 

Zeke also went with a goofy pumpkin. 

Ella made a spooky vampire pumpkin. 

Unfortunately I didn't get a close up picture of Anna & Addison's finished pumpkins.

These sweet girly girls! 

These precious guys! 

I put Pa in charge of getting the gifts for the winners of both categories. Of course he made sure that each kiddo got a prize. They all got a plastic skull cup filled with candy. The two runner ups got a skull cup with candy and a Pez despenser. 

Jackson was the winner of the goofiest pumpkin. If you look back at it you can see the Colonel Sanders mustache, the peg leg and the fart cloud attached to his body. It was truly goofy! In addition the skull cup he got this silly mask too. 

Owen won for the spookiest pumpkin and he got this creepy mask and a giant spider that's hanging from his hand. 

Here's all the kids with their pumpkin creations! 

Jack also won this silly black widow spider hat that I thought was quite fun so I wore it for the rest of the night! 

I'm not sure if this is spectacular or spooky!!!  

Pa and Bill had a fun time visiting in the office. They were ready with the big bowl of candy if trick or treaters came by! 

The kids were having so much fun playing together I wasn't sure if they were even wanted to go Trick or Treating. In fact at 6:30pm I hollered up and asked if they just wanted to skip it. Of course they said no way and hurried to get their costumes on. 

Since we weren't sure if we were going to have a normal Halloween or not I wasn't about to spend money on new costumes so we just stuck with the same ones from last year. 

Skelton Man...Owen actually freaked out a couple of little kids in the neighborhood with this mask. 

Jack accidentally forgot the top part of his head piece so he said instead of being a ninja he was an assassin. 

Ella is such a fierce pirate! 

Zeke was the only one that decided to change his costume this year. He put it together with all sorts of stuff we already had. As you can see he was an Army Soldier! 

The Kuch Kids also created their own costumes from things they had around the house. 

Addison was a Gypsy. I remember being a Gypsy when I was younger. My mom and I had so much fun buying things at St. Vincent de Paul for my costume. 

Anna was a beautiful Angel. She had a white dress on underneath her beautiful shawl. When she opened her shawl it looks like angel wings. 

I didn't get an individual picture of Caleb, but you can see him in the back. He had to do a report on a certain Viking so he wore that costume he used for that report. I can not remember the name of the Viking though.  

Me and my sweet man! 

We set out down the street from my parents and honestly it was the most normal holiday since 4th of July. The people that normally gave out candy gave out candy. The people that normally don't hand out candy didn't. There were a couple people that set up some fun contraptions that delivered the candy so the kids didn't have to get close. There were some people that put out a bowl with a sign that said Take One...and surprisingly none of them were empty yet. There were also a few people that were waiting on their porch so the kids didn't have to knock on the door or ring the door bell. But the point was they participated! It was so great! 

While we were out there we got to see the Blue Moon rising. It was amazing! 

Every year there is this one family that always serves hot chocolate from their driveway. I was worried they wouldn't be doing it this year, but lo and behold they were there just like normal. We told them how thankful they were that they were still out there carrying on the tradition.  

Dumping out his haul! 

There were a few people that gave our standard size candy bars! 

So much sugar!!!! 

Caleb actually sorted out all his candy by type. It was fun to see him doing this. I used to always sort my candy out and see how many I got of each kind. 

These girls didn't care about checking out their haul they wanted to hand candy out to the trick or treaters. 

It's blurry, but I had to have a picture of me and my sweet friend. I love making memories with the Kuch Klan!