Thanksgiving to Remember!

The Turkey Rolls.  What you do when you are out of 9x13 pans (and you own 3, which seems like it should be plenty until you make pretzel jello, stuffing and a double batch of rolls).

We have a pretty predictable Thanksgiving.  My sis-in-law Maren hosts (lovely table settings, great atmosphere).  Her brother Clark (who lives with her) smokes a turkey on the big green egg.  The rest of us bring various sides.  I try (every year) to get the Nortons to like sweet potatoes (in varying forms).  They don't really like them.  I make a few pies, Brett (another bro-in-law) makes pies.  Geneva makes the rolls.  Hard and fast rule.  Well this year Geneva let me make the rolls.  Pressure!  I had to get it right!  So I made a test batch of these rolls from Our Best Bites on Wednesday.  Yummy!
Anyway, I, predictably, spent Wednesday afternoon making pies, rolls, and chocolate mousse and then exhausted from the effort realized I had nothing to feed my family for dinner that night.  (Lucky spaghetti sauce from the freezer night!)
Then Thursday, more and more cooking.  Normal routine for Thanksgiving.
We got to Clark and Maren's mostly on time.  We had to wait for one latecomer.  (Again, normal).  But this time we waited to take the family picture until everyone was there.  And we almost didn't notice that Clark wasn't in the family picture.  So we had to take another one.

We also invited some of our favorite friends from our ward/school.  This is Yukine.  Such a smart girl.  

Here is the family pic + Yukine and her brother Kanata...Oh wait.  No Clark.  

Ahhhh, here we are, all the Nortons/Barretts together.

Well what made this Thanksgiving different was that we finally all settled down to eat and forgot to go around the table and say something we were thankful for.  We were a little hungry and distracted.  But then we hear a small voice from the corner (yes, we put our baby in the corner).  Ben stood up in his chair and said, "Could everyone please stop chitchatting and go around the table and say what they are thankful for?"  He looked so adorable how could we do anything but stop chitchatting and say what we are thankful for.  So we went around the table.  Derek said he was thankful for Football..........and his wife.  Whew.  At least I made it in there.  2nd to football for a fan like Derek is pretty good.  Anyway, we made it almost all the way around the table to Sarah's seat.  She is missing.  So I holler.  Sarah hollers back (through an obviously open door upstairs) "I'm in the bathroom!"  We laugh and finish going around the table.  As we finish we hear Sarah bellow out her gratitude from the toilet, "I'm thankful for books!"  (One of which, I'm sure, was the reason she was taking so long on the toilet!)  Oh my kids.  For the record I said I was thankful for my kids because Libby was trying really hard to make sure Derek said "his kids" and he didn't.  So I didn't want to disappoint her. But in reality.  Yeah.  My kids are what I'm thankful for.  And my husband.  And football.  And also--the predictable unpredictable Norton life.
And I'm even getting over the fact that Maren won 3 out of 3 Rummikub games.  Seriously?

And the final change at Thanksgiving?  Clark introduced us to a girlfriend.  And we like her!