Thanksgiving Week

The Friday before Thanksgiving, Mr. Turkey, who had been with us since October 15th, finally got to have the best day of his life and spend three hours outside the Community School (where they have the Head Start preschools, homeschooled kids academy, special ed classes, etc. for the whole school district) showing off for all the preschoolers, moms, teachers, high school kids.... he was in TURKEY HEAVEN. I'd never seen him so pleased with himself. At one point, he actually did a TURKEY DANCE! He did a shuffle-kick-ball-change around in a circle for about three minutes when he had a really big audience. He did a good just letting about sixty kids pet him, hug him and take pictures with him. It was a good way to round out his fulfilling life.


Unfortunately, it had been raining for three days prior so I never got to get him good and clean, but he was still impressive.


The other thing we did the week before Thanksgiving was let Ana FINALLY get her hair chopped off. She's been begging forever since every day is a battle between me, her, and her hair. She has gorgeous hair, but not the tough head or devotion to get it looking nice every day. It was becoming a hygiene issue since there were days that it couldn't be brushed through at all. So, she picked out some hairstyles online and printed it out and I found a hairdresser and she did all the talking and explaining to the lady of how she wanted it cut and she did it! I'm pretty mad she got bangs because she never wants to put a clip in to hold them off her face. It does look pretty cute when she lets me put a pound of hair product in it, curl up the top and clip up her bangs out of the way... but she only consents on Sundays, so I try to just smile and let it be the rest of the days. She LOVES it and all the freedom she's gained, so I'm happy for her.


The Saturday before Thanksgiving, we got to go into Seattle to pick up Jonah's sister Charity who was comign for the week. Lucky for her, the weather SUDDENLY turned frigid freezing cold. This is how Cam helped get Elsie dressed for the day out--he figures pink and red match.


YEA!!! Charity!! She drove up from San Francisco with her friend Kelsey, and we met her at the ferry terminal. Here we are near UW at a Lebanese restaurant.


The wind picked up and froze us to the bones, but we walked around the Seattle Center and saw the Space Needle from the ground and a Jewelry Show and the beginnings of some good Christmas decorations. After that, we went to my aunt and uncle's (The Velas) house in Redmond where my cousin Jenye (and Ricky) live with their three boys too. It was a great time and they watched our kids while we went to the Temple too. We had a fresh crab feed (crab season opened up for winter and Jonah's been out getting crab almost every day) and said goodbye and made the long journey back here to the Olympic Peninsula.


We rested and ate and went to church on Sunday and then prepared ourselves for what we knew would be a cold day in Victoria, but it didn't stop us. We got up extra extra early on Monday morning and got the animals all fed and the kids extra bundled up and our passports ready and then we all smiled as the first snow fall of the year just fluttered about. We got in the car and started the 25 minute drive to the ferry terminal to take the ship to Victoria. Well, it took an hour because within 10 miles, the roads were covered in four inches of snow and ice. We had left with plenty of time though so we pressed forward. Well, the snow got worse and we ended up missing the ferry by 58 seconds. But, the lady of the ticket counter said we were lucky because they were expecting 110 mph winds in the Straight on the ferry ride home that afternoon. Plus, once we saw how MUCH it snowed that day, we were glad we weren't trudging the streets of Canada and were home warm instead.


Cam and Ana were supposed to miss school for Victoria, but when we figured we weren't going, Cam demanded we take him back to school. Ana isn't so dedicated. We slid our way back to our town and dropped Cam off at school and went to get breakfast. Ana is delighted by snow (and beaches and horses) and made some amazing snow angels in the parking lot.





Elsie doesn't like the snow as much.


But she DOES love jam!!


On our way home from breakfast, we saw Ana's friends out in their yard so we stopped and the kids did some hookie bobbin'.




This is what we came home to.... it had been perfectly green and clear when we left just three hours earlier. I had NO idea this sort of thing could happen here. We didn't even have any snow that stuck last year.... heck, we didn't even have more than 10 days of frost. I've obviously been in denial for too long of how close we are to Alaska.


The horse is from Ogden, Utah originally, so she was actually loving the snow and had a good time playing with Ana and running around.


Luau was born almost exactly a year ago... so she had never seen snow on the groung and I don't think she liked it much...


I'm not a fan of living with snow, but it sure does make our house and yard look tidy and cute. Too bad it doesn't stay this white and fluffy until it suddenly all melts one day.

SO, I'm going to fast forward because for the remainder of Monday and all Tuesday and Wednesday morning, we were snowed in. School was cancelled and our cars were frozen. So, Charity and the kids did some OFF THE HOOK Thanksgiving decorations, we broke out the canned milk and frozen bread, and we stayed cozy. Jonah and I had to spend out six hours a day digging out animals and animal enclosures, feeding freezing animals, shoveling walks, and repairing the damage of the snowstorm and windstorm (which took most of the snow and piled it in huge drifts on our land). In fact, we woke up Tuesday morning and Mr. Turkey's little lean-to/shed had completely blown over and into Luau's enclosure. Mr. Turkey was only saved by the bikes that were in the shed with him and broke the fall of the roof. He was huddled in a little space just his perfect size when we dug him out. Needless to say, he got to spend the next night (his last night) in the cellar. Poor guy! What a fright to have your house fall over on you!
Anyway, snow is pretty and fun for a day but fairly obnoxious overall, so I'm glad it isn't a constant winter companion here in the Northwest. I got enough snow for a lifetime when I lived in Boston.
On Wednesday morning we finally got a car dug out and warm enough to start (we have all diesels/greasels) and were able to drive down the unplowed roads to the stores and do our Thanksgiving food shopping. We just needed a few things, but man was it nice to get out of the house! I got to show Charity around town too.... especially the most popular destination in town, Costco.
That afternoon I drove to Bainbridge Island to get Jonah's cousin Aubrey from the ferry terminal so she could take a break from Seattle University to spend Thanksgiving with us. The snow wasn't as bad in Seattle, but she did miss her first ferry because she was unable to bring a sled to get down the ultra-steep unplowed Seattle streets in time.

Jonah is just the best husband ever and decided to do the turkey while I was picking up Aubrey so I wouldn't have to be there for it. By the time I got home, he, Ana and Charity (yea Charity! way to be a farm girl!) had butchered and plucked the turkey. I didn't have to do a thing! What a nice present. I was so grateful.
The turkey ended up being 42 pounds dressed! Can you believe it!? He was a BIG bird.
Jonah started a fire to soften up the ground so he could dig a pit in which he burned a big fire for a few hours.


Then he wrapped the turkey in a soaked burlap sack and then in chicken wire and put it in the embers of the pit and buried it. He dug it out on Thanksgiving afternoon and we finished it in the oven for two hours (it barely barely fit in our oven) and it was PERFECT! Best turkey ever. It was like a fine sirloin steak. I'm glad it all turned out so great because it isn't the easiest way to have turkey for Thanksgiving, but it surely is the most memorable.


Aubrey got into the action with some good potato peeling. I was SO grateful to have Charity and Aubrey there to help Jonah and I with the food prep because Jonah had to do a lot with the turkey, and I had to be out with the pig who had been in labor all night and all day and was not happy about it. Jonah did take Charity and Aubrey and Camden out on the ocean for a couple hours though, so it wasn't all work on Thanksgiving.



Another great reason to have Charity around is that she really REALLY gets into the holidays and decorated and dressed up and helped write a massive "Thankful List" and got the kids totally jazzed up for what will probably be their most memorable Thanksgiving ever. Elsie did want to be an American Indian for the feast, but her face and skin and hair says 100% PILGRIM, so too bad for her. She liked it eventually and played her part well... but she did change straight into a unicorn costume as soon as dinner was over.


Look at those costumes and decorations. NICE WORK CHARITY!!!


Here's us holding the Thankful List that had 1950 things we were thankful for! We had tried to work on it since Halloween, but it wasn't until Charity's enthusiasm showed up that the kids took it seriously enough to add 500 things a day. WE ARE SO THANKFUL!


I wish this photo was clearer because it is a true classic. Look at Jonah the pilgrim over there... He's about 3 feet off the ground!


We called Ana "Felicity" all day because she looked like the Felicity American Girl character...and Felicity has a horse just like Ana does!





Well, after being up almost ALL night with the pig (except for the two hours between 4-6 am when I had a good sleep inside and she went completely crazy and ate the heat lamp, the heat light bulb, two power cords, the extension cord and the baby monitor) and watching her closely all day, she gave birth to her first two piglets while we were taking the Thanksgiving photos. She is the MASTER of bad timing. But, she did a GREAT job in her delivery and delivered 10 live piglets all between 4.5 pounds and 6 pounds. The first two that were born before I got there did ended up dying from a combination of being weak at birth (probably because I wasn't there to dry them off, get them warm right away, and move them away from Luau so she didn't crush them) and not being able to move out of the way before Luau accidentally smashed them (she's 400 pounds and has no rear view mirrors). I did my best to save them, but it was to no avail. Sad.But, we have 8 healthy piglets still-- two girls and 6 boys!


If you remember, Luau escaped exactly 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days ago to a farm 1/2 mile down the road and was let in with the 18 boars. Well, it looks like there are at least 3 different fathers of the piglets. I wonder if she still regrets her decision to escape that day....
Luckily I didn't have to help too much besides trying to keep all the piglets warm without a heat lamp (it was eaten the night before, remember) and assisting with the last three piglets who were born feet first and after two hours of exhausting labor for Luau. She did a pretty good job and she was a horrible mother at first, but she's gotten a TON better and is doing her job very well as far as I can tell.

A friend gave us some sweaters perfectly made for piglets! We only have three though, so we haven't used them much because we don't want the five other piglets to get jealous.
Piglets sure are cute, but they are NOT cuddly and NOT quiet. This little guy got his leg cut open somehow, so I had to drive around Thanksgiving night trying to find someone who could sew him up. Finally I drove over to a friend's house who is a paramedic and he did the deed. I also got to go to Walmart on Thanksgiving night to buy a new heat lamp. Grrrrrr. Ana was with me so she kept the pig in the car while I went in... I was going to sneak him in with me, but chickened out at the last minute.
We named the little guy "Unlucky" at the time, but he's since been renamed "Stitch". He had to spend the night in the house with us to minimize the chance of infection and he was the devil newborn pig from h***. Just imagine being as exhausted as a new mom (I had been up with the pig for 36 hours), but you are also 36 weeks pregnant... then put a 4 pound newborn in a box at the foot of your bed who doesn't know how to drink out of a bottle but is astronomically hungry. All you have to feed this newborn is a two ounce bottle of formula you got from a sample pack at an ultrasound. Then, every two hours when the baby wakes up hungry, it SCREAMS/SQUEALS louder than anything you've ever heard in your whole life. Like four human newborns with megaphones. And it won't take a binkie and it doesn't wear a diaper. Also, this newborn was born with the ability to walk, chew, bite with razor canine teeth, and kick. This is why The Law of Moses said NO to PORK. What good scriptural analogies can you get from pigs? They pretty much just make you want to throw them out in the snow.
Well, it made me appreciate human newborns anyway. I finally did get Stitch to eat and sleep for a three hour stretch and then in the morning he went happily back to his mom.
Since the first 24 hours, we've been able to spend less and less time checking on the piglets and saving them from accidents (mostly Luau accidentally smooshing or burying them) and we're hoping they all survive until they get weaned on Christmas and sold to their new owners. Luau gets to move to a new home too if her can find one for her in the middle of winter. She's been a blast to have around, but we've decided we might be overwhelmed once the new baby comes.


On Friday after Thanksgiving, I drove Aubrey back to the ferry and we cleaned the house and the Thankgiving decorations to make way for Christmas decorations! We went and bought a living Christmas tree (10th year in a row!) that we can plant in our yard after Christmas. Charity, the MASTER of the HOLIDAYS did most of the decorating, and again, we were SO thankful. I already had a lot of wrapped presents (I only have one more week to get everyone's presents, since I don't want to be shopping with a new baby in tow), so it feels VERY Christmasy. YEAAAAH!

Jonah and Charity... Number Five and Number Nine of their family!
Our friends the Cobines arrived from Saint George (via their trip around Oregon) on Friday night just as the tree was trimmed. They have four kids our kids' ages, so the excitement of that luckily distracted us from the SADNESS of having Charity leave Saturday morning. I was glad I got to drive her to the ferry and have that last hour with her to myself because she is just a total delight. She was SO patient with the kids and with the CRAPPY weather and she did ALL the dishes while she was here (about 10 piles a day... and we don't have a dishwasher) and cleaned the house and helped with everything... but mainly she was FUN and FULL OF LIGHT! We love you CHEECH! Come back soon!


Okay, I'm going to eventually post some more photos of the piglets and of this weekend with the Cobines here... I might even do it tonight if my swollen cankles calm down...