Family, Nicknames & Turkey

This year we hosted our very first Thanksgiving dinner at our home.

I was nervous about the turkey, mostly that it wouldn't be defrosted all the way or that I would not wake up early enough to get it cooking on time.  I cooked the turkey in a turkey size oven bag and I am totally a believer in those things.  The turkey cooked perfectly and the clean up was minimal.

Our party included Grandma and Grandpa Kleinman, Great Grandma Kleinman, Curtis's brother Eric and his wife Karly, my sister Marci and her friend Bryndee.

I made name cards for the place settings, and while I was filling out the names Curtis decided it would be fun to put everyone's real name on one side and a nickname on the other.  His idea was that the side with the nickname would be facing forward so everyone had to find their seat by figuring out what their nickname was.  If he had suggested something like this back when we were first married (when I was more uptight about life) I would never have let it fly.  But now I appreciate his zest for life a bit more and I thought "Why not! It could be fun!"  So he proceeded to declare a nickname for every one of our guests for me to write on the name cards.

Here is what we ended up with:

Great Grandma - Stretch

(You have to know Curtis's Grandmother to know how funny this name is, she was so tickled with her nickname she even took her name card home with her.)

Grandpa Kleinman - Daddy Rabbit

Grandma Kleinman - Cherri

Curtis - Thrasher

Courtney - Holliday Hard Core

Eric - Paul Bunyan

Karly - Karlsbad

Marci - Marcos

Bryndee - Lou Sue

Nathan - Disaster Nater

Bracken - Brack Attack

Everyone had a blast finding their seat and it was a great start to a delicious meal with our friends and family.

Bracken was sitting really close to me, too close.  He kept wacking me on my back shoulder with his fork.  It hurt and it made my shirt dirty.

 Nathan was in heaven.  He had friends galore to play with him.  He loves his Tia Marci, Tio Eric and Tia Karly.  On Thanksgiving morning he even got to go on a little Road Runner hunt with Marci's airsoft guns.  Our neighborhood is plagued by a pair of Road Runners that torment local wildlife, eat our gardens, and leave large birdie poops all over the place.  Curtis and Natey have been trying to matar el corre camino malo for a very long time.  I spotted him in our yard while I was preparing the turkey and sent the troops after him.  Unfortunately it escaped again, but it made for a fun Thanksgiving Day activity and memory.

 

Marci enjoying her drumstick. 

 Here is Bracken with that darn fork.  The roll didn't fair as well as I did.

This was taken Friday evening for Family Movie Night.  We made pizza and ate it picnic style in the living room while we watched How to Train a Dragon.  Here the boys are enjoying some R&R with Tia Marci, notice how Bracken is lounging just like Nathan.  Brack was so tickled getting to snuggle with Marci and Nathan like a big boy.