"Gobble gobble! I'm a yummy turkey!"

That's what Katie said when she was pretending to be a turkey, and I told her that we cook turkeys and eat them for Thanksgiving. She seemed to think that was funny. I then proceeded to pretend to eat her, much to her delight.

Well, did you all survive? I think we did. I took a bunch of pictures of our vacation days, but I think I'll talk first and picture later.

Well, first, we got to go to the rededication of the Boise Temple (yay!). The night before, there was a big youth cultural celebration with the prophet, which was so full of youth that the grown-ups had to watch the broadcast from their respective stake centers. It was pretty awesome, though. My siblings had a ton of fun.

Then, for Family Home Evening on Monday, we put up Christmas!!! I know what you're thinking. Thanksgiving hadn't happened yet. But you know what? I think Christmas should be a year-long holiday. So we've been listening to Christmas music for, like, a month or two, and we put up our tree as soon as it was cold enough. Besides, every time we walk into the family room from the kitchen or the upstairs, Katie has to run to the tree, put her hands on her cheeks and exclaim, "Christmas tree! It's beautiful! I love the Christmas tree!"

Mike only got Thursday and Friday off, so vacation didn't include the whole week like it did for my siblings. Well, actually, we did get to go hang out with Mike on his lunch break on Tuesday, and I finally met his boss and some more people from his work. They were all just rather glad to finally meet Katie, I think.

Thursday was quite a day. In keeping with tradition, the big feast was held out on my grandparents' farm with everybody (which is a lot). However, we went over rather early because my dear father and brothers borrowed their friend's dirt bikes for the weekend and wanted Mike to come ride in the hills with them. Sigh.

Yes, I have kind of a problem with motorcycles. But Mike sure had the time of his life. He came back all red  from the cold and grinning his cheeks off, only sporting one black and purple toe. Oh, and also a broken piece of fence. Sorry, Gram.

The only thing that really went wrong was that right in the middle of food preparation, with, like, forty hands going at once in the kitchen, the stuff under Gram's sink started leaking like crazy. We had to keep emptying buckets and my dad had to go all the way back to his house to find a part to fix it because (thankfully for the employees) the hardware stores are all closed on Thanksgiving.

Then we ate a whole lot of food. Like, a whole lot. And there was a lot of lethargy following. But while our stomachs digested, my dad and his personal band went to the music room and started rockin' out some Christmas tunes, and, of course, Katie had to participate. She just couldn't help herself. It was pretty cute.

After we thought (mistakenly) that our stomachs were down to normal size again, we opened up the pies. Oh, boy. I should have waited longer and then gone slower. I only could eat a little bit, and I'm pretty sure pie should be the national food.

Such was our Thanksgiving. I'm pretty sure it was a successful day, don't you think?

Friday we went to the Festival of Trees downtown, and it was . . . eh. I was kind of excited for the live music they always have going, but it was just some old ladies singing off-key. I think we just missed the awesome carolers in their 19th-century outfits, and just as we were leaving some little tiny ballerinas came out in fluffy pink tutus and we almost stayed for them (if I hadn't been so sore, we would have). We saw some pretty clever trees and wreaths though, including an Avengers-themed tree and several Mickey Mouse ones that Katie loved.

In other news: Saturday night, Mike's stomach thing struck again. Luckily, he had his Phenergan from last time and was able to sleep slightly more and keep water down so we didn't have to take him to the emergency room for more fluid. But he definitely couldn't go to church. Monday he was well enough again to go back to work, but seriously? I'm starting to think it might be some kind of allergic reaction, because he says he didn't actually feel better in the ER until he got Benadryl, and that was the third time it had happened like that. (The first time was the night before his interview in Chicago, and there was definitely some divine intervention involved the next morning getting him to his interview.)

Now he just has to not eat anything weird or different before his interview in Des Moines on Friday. (Ought we really to give Iowa a try? We're pretty contrary . . .) (Sorry, I couldn't help it.) But we did find out that Des Moines is listed as one of the top places to live in the country. Cool, huh? It might be nice for raising some crazy children.

Now for some pictures. Yes, a significant amount of them are blurrier than I would like. My excuse? It was dark so I had to try and make them brighter, but no one in my family is capable of holding still. At least you'll get the idea.

Uncle Sam teaching Katie the proper way to deal with a leaf pile.

I call this "American Tutus."

I can't believe that I'm putting this picture up (although it makes my belly look smaller than it is), but Katie's actually smiling . . .

The boys getting ready to go tear it up on their bikes (Mike is the one on the bike.) 

Writing thankful lists with Grandma (Katie didn't eat much at dinner because she spent all day with her cheeks full of bread and cucumbers from the veggie tray.)

Hastily fixing the sink

She seemed to think it funny that her pants refused to stay on.

She insisted that Abuelo needed someone to play with him as a duet, while also singing louder than all the brass instruments (the video was too long or I'd have put it on here)

This wreath was designed by the main OR department at St. Alphonsus. I just couldn't help it.

"I'm a snowman!"

"Cheese!"

This is the only one I could get of her in the tutu with her magic wand where she wasn't spinning around in circles too fast for a picture. Please ignore her messy closet and the basket of dirty laundry.

How was that? Am I forgiven for not posting for a couple weeks? I did make this whole resolution last time that I was going to keep up and write once a week, and you can see how well that turned out. Well, I'll have to get on in a couple weeks after our big 20 week ultrasound and put up more pictures of the boys anyway, so you're guaranteed at least every other week.

Merry Christmas!