In Which I Enter Adulthood

Nope: the marriage, the college degree, the mortgage, the baby, the second pregnancy....none of those pushed me into adulthood. What did it, instead, was preparing a Thanksgiving dinner entirely by myself.* I pulled giblets and a neck out of a turkey cavity...all by myself. I stuffed it with citrus fruit and onion quarters. I basted it every half hour. I served homemade rolls, jello salad, potatoes, several different types of pie, stuffing, and other delicious foods that I can't think of right now. I planned the menu, I executed the shopping, I scheduled all of the cooking so that everything would be ready at the same time. And I'm (obviously) pretty darn proud of myself.

For those of you who are growing bored of this post already, I will note right now that I'm really recording this only for family history purposes. I recognize that most of you will not be interested in my Thanksgiving. But I'm putting down the details here because it was a very nice holiday and I would like to remember it. So don't feel bad for stopping right here and visiting the "lol cats" website instead.)

Abe's from New Hampshire, but all of his adult siblings live out west. Abe had told his older sister, Natalya, who lives in Montana, that we would love to come visit her and her family sometime soon. She called and said, "Jacob's got time off for Thanksgiving. Why don't we come down and visit you?" That sounded like a good idea to us, so we decided to have a miniature Skousen Family Thanksgiving at our house. In addition to the Brown Family (Nat and Jacob and their three children (Hyrum (3), Lucy (2), and Heber (1)), our two LDS Busines College siblings (Quentin and Briar) also visited for the Holiday. I truly enjoyed having my house stuffed to the brim with guests.

We used to joke that Quentin could come live with us and be Soren's nanny, so we refer to him as "Nanny Q" while speaking with Soren. Soren has adapted this name to "Nan-O." They have good times together.

Briar and Hyrum spend some time getting to know each other. Or maybe Hyrum wants to play with Briar's laptop, which you can't see, due to the Thomas the Train blocking Briar's lap.

I was AMAZED at Heber's ability to nap in the middle of chaos. Soren, being a spoiled oldest child, must be laid in his bed with a white noise maker whirring in the background. This child, on the other hand, slept soundly in the rocking chair while Soren not-so-gently rocked him and his older siblings played nearby with toys. Most impressive.

(Please also note Soren's layered look. This is a cute habit that he has picked up on lately. He loves to wear short-sleeved shirts over long-sleeved shirts and shorts over long pants. In the morning he sometimes likes for me to put a second pair of pajamas on top of the jammies he slept in.)

Lucy looking very Aryan. She is an adorably sweet little cutie pants.

Jacob and Natalya were very sweet to help out around the house during their visit. Jacob fixed our dishwasher and helped Abe and Quentin repair our kitchen deck; Natalya, in addition to helping out in the kitchen, was dear enough to wipe some nasty Soren poopies out of the carpet when he experienced an out-of-this-world diaper explosion. (After dealing with similar poopies for a couple of weeks, we finally discovered that citrus fruit was at the root of Soren's bowel upset.)

And this is the spot where I would post a nice picture of Natalya and Jacob. Unfortunately, the only decent picture I got of their faces was a breastfeeding shot, which I thought Nat might not appreciate having posted on my blog. So just know that they're very cute people.

Anyway, to continue my narrative: The Browns left Friday afternoon. Natalya was sick for the duration of the 8-hour drive (I swear it wasn't my food!) and vowed never to travel that far with three small children ever again. (She also made this vow the last time she came to visit us, so I'm not terribly concerned.) Her children were also a little sick in the days following (I swear it wasn't my food!) Soren, though he enjoyed having visitors his age for the first twenty-four hours, had started to grow overwhelmed by the presence of so many other children, and was deeply relieved to have the house return to its usual quiet state, where he is the sole creator of all chaos, noise, and unpredictability.

Sunday night I took him out for a ride around Shelley so he could see the Christmas lights. These were met, that night and throughout the season, with many exclamations of "Ooooh! Lights!" and "Wooww!"

*My friend Nicholas came over the night before to help me bake pies. Also, Natalya was in charge of the Funeral Potatoes. But you get the general idea.....