Thanksgiving

It has been some time since my last post I know, I'd like to say I've been busy but truthfully I probably haven't been. although this past week has been absolute mayhem. I decided to invite my grandparents and father in law over for thanksgiving dinner. I haven't really celebrated thanksgiving since being back in the UK but for some reason I decided I should.
My father in law had not yet been to our home and we moved here a year ago so I wanted it to be nice I cleaned the house thouroughly and spent 2 or 3 days trying to keep it that way which I must say was much harder than the actual cleaning.
I noticed that the renfrewshire home ed group was meeting on thanksgiving and set about arranging some thanksgiving activities, I got some books from amazon about thanksgiving and found a recipe for marshmallow pilgrim hats, I got some 'I am thankful for...' print offs and some black card to make pilgrim hats with, then after thinking about it I decided we could make indian hats too since they're quite an important part of thanksgiving too.
I spent several days making sure I had everything I was going to need and arranging a schedule for the day. the group was meeting at 12 til 3 I would be home by 4 have dinner by 5 then I remembered Donald had anchor boys on a thursday night and they don't get thanksgiving off here, so I squeezed that into my schedule too.
The day before thanksgiving The car wouldn't start and knowing the next day we had to drive to paisley and back and pick up my grandparents and father in law and get Donald to anchor boys and then my grandparents had commitments from 6:30 as well I was worried I was going to have to cancel thanksgiving after all the preperation for it. We phoned my cousin to bring some jump leads and I had gone to get a bus to town since I had a dentist appointment I didnt want to miss (and I am thankful I wont have to go back for 6 months) while I was at the bus stop William managed to get it started and phoned my cousin to let her know not to come, he said all it needed was a good shake... car abuse if you ask me but hey it worked (and I am thankful that it did) so who am I to judge.
That night we got the turkey cooked and peeled the potatoes so next day all we would need to do is switch on the oven/cooker. we made sure the whole house sparkled and we slept well.
we had planned to take Teo and Joy to toddlers that morning but teo slept until 9:50 so we didn't make it. we were also hoping the car seat I ordered would arrive before the long journey but it didn't so it was off to Paisley. We were right on time but nobody else was there so we had to wait a while and when others arrived we had lunch. after lunch I set out the crafts and some of us made pilgrim hats and indian hats, then it was off to the kitchen to make marshmallow hats to eat YUM! while some tidied I read the story of thanksgiving to the children, which was a bit long I really should have highlighted the important parts and cut it down but it was fine, I know better for next time. another mum read the second book i brought (which I am thankful for as my throat was hurting by the end of the first book) and afterwards we sang songs and then it was over to the park for a treasure hunt one of the other mums had arranged.
3 o clock came fast and we were back on the road rushing home to start dinner. I got everything cooking while William went to collect our guests. everything was going well until the gravy, it seemed to be going all wrong until I re-read the instructions and realized what I missed, It eventually worked out and soon we were sitting down to yummy Turkey, Mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, veg, and gravy with some shloer in plastic wine 'glasses' to make it seem extra special. after we ate we all wrote what we were thankful for and I served apple Pie and Ice cream for dessert. I wish we could have enjoyed the evening for longer, it felt as if we ate dinner, ate desert, and shoved everyone out the door but Donald had to get to anchor boys, my granda had dominoes and my gran also needed to be somewhere so thanksgiving came to an abrupt end but it was a wonderful thanksgiving and I have alot to be thankful for.