Whoa.
I’m barely coming up for breath after a chock-full, spectacular, tiring, chaos-packed, family filled, velvety-wonderful week.
As I mentioned before, six of us nine siblings got to be here together in the desert, and let me tell you, it was a non-stop party. Our neighbors were out of town and generously let us borrow their home while they were gone so we had the whole cul-de-sac just for us and boy howdy, we bounced off every wall here I tell you!
college girls home: 1
sisters reunited: 4
batches of cookies baked: 13
hikes taken: 3
average temperatures: 80s (crazy warm for this time of year)
adult dinner out for Thai food: 1
deep conversations over frozen yogurt: 1
(lots of deep conversations, that was just the one over yogurt 🙂
5-K races run by me: 1 (yeah, I’ve never done that before so I was pretty proud of myself:)
people registered for the Turkey Trot: 3,700 (probably close to 5,000 there including all the people who came just to hang and didn’t even run)
5th grade teachers who came to support their girl: 1
(…and made her SO happy because of it…she is the best teacher and we adore her so much!)
Dave and my family members who came to support: five of my siblings, six of Dave’s…with all their kids (and all the others were there in spirit…love them so much!)
Number of times I teared up about that: a lot
Thankful boards filled up to the brim: 1
People hosted for Thanksgiving dinner:Â 34
people cooking in the kitchen all at the same time: a whole slew
number of things everyone wrote combined on our “thankful list” receipt: 900
number of people who really thought Max should have been #1: me (I’m sure he was written a whole slew of times on there actually…)
leaves added to the Thankful Tree: a whole flurry
temples visited: 2
(the kids did baptisms at another one)
loads of laundry done, counters wiped, dishwashers loaded and then emptied: 827 (ok yeah, it sure seems like it!)
Number of hours these girls logged in babysitting:Â a ton
Number of times they complained: 0
grandkids joined together for days on end: way more than could fit on this backdrop:)
birthdays celebrated: 2
dogs staying at our house: 2
amount of tennis played in all types of varieties: a lot
boxes of curry needed for curry night: 8
girls staying in this room: 8
number of people who slept at our house on the biggest night: 26
how fast the cabinets and fridge was emptied from hungry mouths over and over again: very
swimming hours logged with cousins jumping in and out of that polar pool: uncountable
(the weather was warm and we heated the hot tub so all those cousins were like fish I tell you!)
Number of cousins we got to sit in the “hot seat” to interview while doing all kinds of cooking: a bunch
goodbye hugs to our college girl: lots and lots
hours of sleep slept the whole week: 3 (ok, not really but it felt like that!)
Oh man, so many details to expand on, but there was our week in a little nutshell.
Over the weekend one by one the families started to head out, still one more family still here we are soaking up for one more day and after that, full speed on to Christmas.
My heart is so full of gratitude.
Wish I could have expressed the specifics daily here on the blog.
I love the highs and the lows, the beauty and the pain, the fullness and now the emptiness of this house of ours 🙂 But missing everyone and feeling so filled with love.
So fun. Random question…not sure if that is your house where the tennis/basketball court is, but I have a couple questions about it–like what surface it is, who did it, etc. Is there a way you could put me in touch with whosever house that is? Thanks!
What an amazing time with family! xo
Wow! So much fun. What a blessing! 🙂
Do you have a recipe you follow for curry? Sounds yummy!