The Johnson's Top Chef Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was hilarious! No one in our family is a gourmet chef, but we decided to have a cooking competition anyway. Peter and I watch Top Chef every week, so I thought it would be fun to video tape the whole day and make our very own episode.  Everyone had to create their own Thanksgiving dish and have it ready by 5:30pm. We had a lot of fun making the bios and the having everyone in the kitchen at once. Mimi didn't know what to do with herself, because she's always been the one in the kitchen making a majority of the dishes. We called her the "saboteur" since she couldn't help herself and kept fiddling with everyone's food. The end result was a really funny memory! In retrospect, we should have judged the food at the end instead of one at a time, it made eating a little less pleasurable and way more stressful. But hey, it was a competition!

Here's a run down of what everyone made:

Peter - Turkey      Abby - Pumpkin Apple Soup      Poppie - Grean Bean Casserole      Nonnie - Marshmellow Salad      Dodie - Bacon Cheddar Crustini      Buggy - Mashed Potatoes      Mimi - Corn Pudding      Grandma & Grandpa - Chocolate Tier

You'll have to watch to see who won!

So, here's the Johnson's Top Chef Thanksgiving (Yes, it's long.):

Thank You, God - For Our Family!

My family was able to come up from California for the whole week of Thanksgiving! We didn't do very much in the way of activities - Peter had to work, and the kids had their naps - but we did do lots of shopping. Which normally is not my favorite thing, but my sisters, Shmee (AKA - Dodie or Shannon) and Buggy (really Nicole) played "What Not To Wear" in my closest and threw out most of my wardrobe. So my very generous Mamacita took us shopping and bought me some new outfits. Yes, I now own a pair of black leggings - straight from the '80's, and "skinny jeans" which both my sisters said was a must right now. Actually, they look pretty cute with my boots (a purchase they talked Peter into buying for me last Christmas). 

Mostly, we just relaxed, played with kids, watched TV and had competitions - something the Tague family is never for lack of.

Buggy and Eben painting with pudding.

Mimi pushing Kivi and Jasper in their "boat".

Our Thanksgiving dinner! The most stressful, but fun, Thanksgiving ever - more on that later.

Here is a cutie video of our dancing Opal. Eben's robot, courtesy of our friends the Wileys, can entertain her for about a half hour! A really long time for a 10 month old. It looks like it has nothing to do with the Thanksgiving festivities, but it happened that week, so here it is.

Aunt Sherri

When my family came for Thanksgiving my Aunt Sherri (who lived in WA my whole life, but now resides in CA, making me and her two sons the ONLY ones who live out of state - Thanks, Aunt Sherri!) was able to visit for a day. My kids are in love with her! They try to take her away and have her all to themselves. While she was here we had a photo competition, we all had 5 minutes to take a picture with the theme of "nature".

Bubba and Aunt Sherri snuggling on the couch.

Kivi had to take her on "a walk with our purses". She took her all the way to the school park - and it was cold! But they had matching scarves, so it was alright.

Here's the winning photo - from our photo competition.

Thanks for visiting us Aunt Sherri - too bad you missed the Top Chef competition!

Small Group Thanksgiving

Our HFG (Home Fellowship Group) had our own little Thanksgiving on Nov. 19th. It was very peaceful, the kids stayed upstairs with the babysitter, Miss Maggie, and it was the most delicious meal ever! It helped that we have 2 gourmet chefs in our group. Peter cooked a very tasty bird.

 This was our table setting, it served as a trial run for when my family would come for the real deal too. 

Eben came up with the idea of folding the napkins like envelopes, which he got from his friend Martha (Stewart). 

Peter carving his turkey.

Playing the after dinner Thanksgiving game.

We are very thankful for our small group family!

Note To Self -Review "Jesus Loves Me"

After I got ready one morning, I came upstairs to see all the babes sitting on the "Mama Couch" singing songs and the camera was right there on the mantle. This is not their best rendition of "Jesus Loves Me". Maybe we will practice and try broadcasting it again at a later date. For now, here's the real, live version.

Megan Is Here!

On November 3, I got to have the privilege of being the Schocks birth photographer! It's so amazing to see a baby being born! And Megan shot out, literally. It was a water birth, which I am a huge fan of and Shari delivered her in the same room and tub at the Birthing Inn that Opal was born in, so it brought back all sorts of recent memories. It was such a surreal moment and the world seemed to stop as soon as that little life hit the air. We were all just in awe of her. I think when you get to witness someone else's birth, you have more time to take it in. In all of my births I remember just being on auto pilot. Not as much emotionally tied into the fact that a miracle is taking place as much as I should be. More driven to make sure the people around me are doing what they are suppose to be doing, pictures, videos, not letting the baby fall on the tile floor, and concentrating on being fully relaxed, so that I will feel nothing.  It made me want another chance, Megan's birth. I've had 4 very successful, and rather painless births, so I can't complain, and everyone knows I want more kids. But, I want to be there emotionally next time. I've never cried at one of my births. I want to be really there. I want to cry.

Teaching Each Other

I caught our cutie kids teaching each other some valuable lessons. The first one is of Eben teaching Kivi to read, from his phonics book. The second is Jasper teaching Opal how to push buttons. The recipients of the teaching are not as excited as their teachers. Which makes it pretty funny.