Funny Guy Friday... What a great Thanksgiving...

    Funny Guy Friday is written each week by my husband Mark. So, I married a funny guy...
    What a great Thanksgiving.
    Every year we do the same basic things. First, my family gets together for breakfast and football. The complexity and timing of the breakfast depends on who is coming to dinner that night. We host every year, but we alternate each year between my family and Cheryl's family. So in a year when we host Cheryl's family, we have an extended breakfast at someone's home, but if we are hosting my family, we might just have donuts and coffee at the field.
    Since we were hosting Cheryl's family this year, we had a breakfast feast hosted by my nephew and his newlywed bride. My nephew was married about a year ago, and they have a beautiful home near the field where we play. They don't have a lot of furniture in their home, but what they have is very nice.
     One thing that they have none of... is children. Not a one... which, I am sure, made for some anxious moments when ten kids under the age of twelve descended upon their home... Like locusts!
     At first, the little horde was well behaved and a bit cautious. But they seemed to grow stronger as their number increased. Number as in the number of children that were present and number as in number of nice sugary donuts they inhaled.
     They started throwing balls, jumping on the nice furniture, and wrestling one another. They also scouted out a track of sorts through the dining room, down the hallway, through the kitchen and back through the dining room. Pretty standard stuff for a pack this size.
     At one point, I walked up upon a conversation involving Cheryl and my nephews new bride... complete with kids running under foot.
     Someone just commented that this is kind of a form of birth control, our hostess joked.
     Well, I was just going to say that God doesn't bless you with this many kids all at one time... he gives you one, and maybe, if you are lucky, two at a time. And they start out being very quiet... and they don't move around very much.  My wife, always the voice of calm and reason in a torrent of chaos!
     Besides... someone else piped in... you have a basement, once you start having a bunch of kids over, you can throw them down in the basement.
     That strategy does not always go so well... I told my niece... once we had a party and your husband and all of his lousy cousins were down in our basement and about a month later, when we went to move the couch, we found that one of them had spilled a full can of coke and it had eaten through our new carpet.  I, of course, am always the voice of doom and disaster in a torrent of chaos!
     Then the big game... THE YEARLY TURKEY BOWL!!!
     This is for bragging rights for one full year.  We have the Side of Good (led by yours truly) and the Dark Side (led by my nephew Jonathan). I am not going to talk too much about the game other than to report that the Side of Good triumphed over the Side of Evil. I don't want to talk too much about it because the wound is fresh for my nephew and his cohorts and there was a bit of controversy.
     It was on a crucial third down play when a ball was snapped over the head of our QB by a newcomer to the game. He did not realize that you could just turn and toss the ball to the QB as opposed to snapping it between his legs. Not sure how he did not know this crucial bit of information because he was told and he had seen everyone else do it for three quarters of the game... but he did not know.
     Fortunately for us, there was an inadvertent whistle... that only I heard. Being the oldest living member of the family that still plays (very effectively I might add) they only give me a little blow back when I said we were going to replay the down. Occasionally, age does have its privileges.
     Anyway, we converted that crucial first down and later, on a separate drive, scored the go ahead TD on the last play of the game.
     Boy, was I sore all day. In fact, I mentioned this to Matthew on the drive home and he pointed out that half the conversation at the Turkey Bowl is about what good athletes we used to be and the other half is about how sore we are going to be!
     Then came the big Thanksgiving feast... or the post game spread. In addition to the turkey, the ham and the seven different potato dishes that we prepared, Cheryl's family came with tons of food. Her brother Ray makes the best gravy and carves a turkey like nobody's business, and her sister Annie spent two days in our kitchen helping to prepare the meal. And as far as I know, she did not steal anything. The same cannot be said for her sister Karen.
     We were all having a great time when I discovered that Karen stole a pin that belongs to my mother.
     After enjoying our desserts, I was admiring her pin when she told me it was Cheryl's pin. I assumed that Cheryl let her wear it. It turns out that it was my mom's pin that she found... probably going through my mom's dresser drawers.
     If I did not love her kids so much, I would have thrown her out on her keister.
     Okay okay... maybe she was joking around and had picked it up off the side table and was trying it out.  But still... it was my mom's.
     Speaking of my mom, she went to my brother Joe's house and was not here for dinner. However, I have been thinking a lot about how Cheryl and her family treat my mother. Simply put, they treat her like one of their own. They are sure to include her in every event. My in-laws take the time to sit and chat with her, oftentimes in a separate room where there is less noise. They jump up to greet her and give her hugs when she walks into the room. Heck, Karen's kids... you remember Karen the kleptomaniac... her kids refer to her as Grandma Palumbo.
     Before saying our prayer, I took a moment to thank Cheryl's family for all that they do for her. In the course of showing my gratitude, I may have shed a tear. Afterwards, perceiving my heartfelt show of gratitude, they all came over to say a kind word or to give me a hug. I did not have the heart to tell them that I wasn't crying about what I had said, I was crying because I was so sore from the Turkey Bowl!!
     Anyway, we had a great Thanksgiving.
     When I think about the things that I am thankful for, the one thing that always leaps out is my family. My brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews and even my in-laws. God really has blessed us with a  beautiful family.
     And in our home, it is such a treat to have Gracie home from college and to watch her laughing and fooling around with Matthew and Noah... so long as she does not interrupt Noah while he is baking/cooking. He made some killer brussels sprouts wrapped in bacon and smothered in a bourbon glaze, as well as a pumpkin pie and a homemade pumpkin cheesecake with a ginger snap crust.  
     And of course, I am thankful for my wonderful wife, who takes such great care of all of us and happily puts up with all of my shenanigans.
     I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving with your families.
     We thank God and are all truly blessed!