Thanksgiving Fun!

Well we're back and rested up from our fun weekend in Kansas. The Maucks have lots of fun traditions that I've enjoyed getting to be a part of in the last four years. There's four-wheeling the kids around, and pulling a big group of them in a trailer, all ages, from 1 to 13.

The men always go bird-hunting (except for Jay, who is all buck), and sometimes gigging (I'm still not entirely sure what this entails). We of course have a HUGE meal on Thursday, with melt-in-your-mouth Kansas corn, homemade rolls, smoked ham, and Diane's great dressing. I made two Paula Deen recipes that were quite delicious, if I do say so myself: pumpkin cheesecake, pecan-toffee tassies, and a quick and easy sugar cookies (from a mix) with raspberry jam thumbprints.

















Abby is always a favorite of the babies and kids. This is Logan, Katelyn, and Claire Mauck! Claire has started saying Katelyn's name, "Tatie." She loves her!



















Claire and Lauren were having a lot of fun climbing from the mini-trampoline to the couch. Claire kept trying to love on her, but Lauren was having none of it! Zack was keeping an eye on them.

Friday is for shopping, although I'm not as hard-core as some. One group always leaves around six, while I go with the later group around eight. I got four or five Christmas gifts, and probably almost matched that number in clothes for me! But I got some good deals. Jay likes to say I usually match Christmas gifts in stuff for me, but I don't think it's quite that bad!

Jay and I went out on a long four-wheeler ride Friday afternoon while Claire was sleeping, along with four other Maucks. Uncle Don cut a whole bunch of trails through his woods, with some thrilling drops, tight turns, and creek crossings. It was super-fun!

We stayed with Jay's cousin Tracy, her hub Kourt, and their two little boys Dylan and Drew. Dylan loves playing with Jay, and Claire loved playing with Dylan, so they had a lot of fun.
Friday night is always steak night, when Don grills steaks over an open fire with bois d'arc wood. It is the best meat I have ever eaten! After din, four of the husbands and one wife put the babies to bed while five of us stayed up and played Nertz. Let me just tell you Pannells, I apologize for the miserable way I represented our family. It was the worst three games of my life! The last game was seriously 20 hands long and I never got out of the negatives! Even though I think I Nertzed twice in that one! Singles nertz is so much harder than doubles! The scores are lower and it goes on forever! It was still fun though.

We left Saturday morning and got home at about four in the afternoon. Claire did not take a single nap on the way home! She was pretty good, though. Between Diane and I, we had a ton of books and movies and other stuff to keep her occupied.