Thanksgiving Blast

I don’t even know where to begin with Thanksgiving this year! As always it was over-the-top with family and activities. *NOTE: To continue and fully enjoy the hilariousness of these images, it is an ABSOLUTE MUST to click on the photos to enlarge the people and funny expressions. ENJOY!

This year we all gathered at the Swartz household (thanks Mike and Heather!). With a house full of gymnastic munchkins (*ahem* the kids: Morgan, Miranda, Sage, Justin and Sabrina), the Swartz’s have a huge playroom/gymnasium built right into the house; very cool and a must for any house of active munchkins (about the size two 4-car garages!).

Thanksgiving Day started off with plenty of food and laughter. This year I contributed by baking 3-pumpkin pies (one was made milk-free with coconut milk instead of condensed milk – very good!), homemade whipped cream to boot, tons of homemade rolls and a vat of whipped honey-butter. Endless amounts of turkey, ham, whipped potatoes, stuffing and gravy came via everyone else!

After food and rolling about a bit the activities exploded. Being too full to do anything else, I believe we started with Gestures [Boys vs. Girls]. As the turkey-drugs wore off, gymnastics took place! The group couldn’t decide between the launch pad and the bar… no one got tired of watching everyone flail through the air from the launch pad (spring-board) onto a pile of foam.

A while later karaoke and the costume bin were discovered. Quite the scene! After a bit of wigs and bad singing and maybe some more gymnastics and stick-fighting on a balancing beam, we played Sardines. Sardines must be played in the dark for it to work. This works like Hide-N-Seek but backwards.

How to play: The person that’s It hides while all the other players count to 60. Everyone looks for It, and each player quietly hides with It when they find him/her. Soon, those who are left realize that they are looking for a hiding place with a lot of people in it.

It is quite hilarious when about 25 or so of us are playing in a big dark house. Half the people have never even been in the house before and the house has a lot of nifty hiding places! One spot ended up in a attic-fort, one was in the master bath…shower! Someone kicked the water faucet on that one ending in wet feet and almost a communal shower. In the last game we all ended up under a bunch of foam pads in the game room. Not the best spot because everyone would come charging into the room stomping on all the early hiders realizing it was people under the pads that was squeaking and not toys!

That night ended at 10:30pm for us… bruised and worn out. Friday consisted of the annual Paintball Wars! Sadly, John did not get to play for the first time in like 6-years. Not to go rubbing it in, but the weather was gorgeous and the turnout very good (15-20 people per team). As a part of the camera crew, we ventured out to see how the game was going. It is quite risky being a part of the camera crew; sometimes you get attacked.

After the forest and players were painted, bruised and completely worn out, we had more turkey, potatoes, ham, gravy and pumpkin pie. Then it was off to the Slick Car Tracks (in Medford) for some more fun! It looked busy upon arriving, but our mob tends to clear out smaller groups upon arrival.

I spent the remainder of the holiday weekend at home tearing apart our home office which was quite the adventure and good for another post. I believe Saturday was another day of paintballing and Pats turkey soup…and/or pizza so I heard.

We hope everyone had as great a holiday as us! ... and of course, there's always room for a turkey leg! (robyn was a starving nome here).