Double the Blessing & Double the Fun + One: Double the Blessings this Thanksgiving

As Thanksgiving came and went Blake and I were counting our double blessings this holiday season! We certainly had lots to be thankful for. Last year we celebrated Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas without David and Thomas....now we celebrate each holiday with them and couldn't be more blessed with their presence in our lives. Thank you, Jesus, for brining our boys home to the U.S. safely! It's hard to believe it's almost been a year. On Thanksgiving day the the boys also celebrated their 17 month birthday. We had so many things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

We are teaching the boys that the day of the holiday isn't as special as the people who join us for the holiday celebrations....and mommy believes in the more the merrier! Thanksgiving was a full 48 hour celebration at our house. Grandma and Grandpa Driver came over Wednesday afternoon and spent the night. Grandpa Driver was in charge of making Thanksgiving dinner for the Drivers and Harmelink's. He is a brave man since we were making dinner for 20! I guess he worried about leaving Thanksgiving dinner up to a vegetarian and what we would all eat. We all hung out Wednesday night, ordered pizza and the boys were spoiled with lots of play time with Grandma and Grandpa. Uncle Brady also joined us Wednesday night through Friday. David and Thomas find nothing better than more than a 2:1 ratio of adults to busters. They were in their glory. David and Thomas enjoyed some great wrestling time with Uncle Brady along with lots of spoiled individual moments which are rare in our house of twins! We enjoyed a great breakfast Thursday morning cooked by grandma and grandpa and then around noon all the Harmelink's began to arrive. David and Thomas were quick to find Grandma Harmelink and her walker. They find nothing better than to enjoy rides on the seat of her walker and grandma couldn't be prouder of giving her great grandchildren "a spin" on her walker. It's a win win that allows mommy to help out in the kitchen. We all enjoyed a delicious meal compliments of Grandpa Driver and everyone else pitching in and bringing a dish. David and Thomas took a wonderful nap (3.5 hours for David) while we enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner. It was sad that they missed dinner, but mommy sure enjoyed a hot meal for once. And the honest truth is that our once adventurous eaters have become somewhat picky. They currently refuse to eat pasta, potatoes, most meat, and most veggies. We eat a lot of peanut butter toast, bananas, yogurt, hummus, and apples these days!! David is into saying "yucky" every time he thinks he might not like something or if (on the rare occasion) he does try something he takes it out of his mouth and hands it to me saying "yucky." I hope this phase will pass and we will be back to the adventurous eaters we once had!

We did have some excitement during Thanksgiving dinner that the boys missed out on. As we were beginning to eat cousin Brayden leaned over to his mom and said "Mom, the rolls are on fire!" Melissa responded (without looking), "No, they aren't." Then after another comment from Brayden Melissa looked over and loudly said "The rolls are on fire!" The basket of rolls and napkin had gotten to close to the candle on the table and had started on fire!! Of course the first reaction of a few sitting close by was to blow on it...which adds oxygen, which fuels a fire. Thankfully our safety man Uncle Brady took the lid from the butter dish and worked to extinguish the flames and we brought the burning basket into the kitchen where we were able to put out the fire!! Good work Uncle Brady! Thanks for saving Thanksgiving!!

In true Harmelink tradition we went bowling after Thanksgiving dinner. I can remember this activity as a young child and alway enjoyed the time with my cousins. To this day the tradition continues and we all enjoy our once a year bowling outing. David and Thomas were not sure about the bowling alley when we arrived (I think due to the loud music), but that quickly changed and they were ready to join in the bowling fun. With the help of the bowling stand and all their aunts and uncles they had more than their fair share of chances to bowl. In between turns David spent time dancing to the music and Thomas enjoyed some time being passed from one aunt and uncle to the next. We had a great Thanksgiving and look forward to many more with our busters.