The 2009 Horrocks Thanksgiving Extravaganza

It was our turn to host the Horrocks Thanksgiving this year. This meant that we found a location, since our place wasn't big enough, made food assignments, planned activities for the between dinner and dessert times, set-up, etc. Knowing it was our turn, we did lots of talking and brainstorming to determine what would work for us this year. We opted to have dinner at our church building and reserved the Relief Society Room, Kitchen, and Gym beginning at noon with the plan to eat at 1:00 pm.

The food assignments for this year were as follows:

Dan-Turkey, Stuffing, Green Bean Casserole, Cranberries, & a Dessert
Mark-Yams, Green Salad & Dressings, & a Dessert
Ann-Potatoes, Gravy, & Mom's Cranberry Salad, & a Dessert
Andy-Rolls & Toppings for them (let us know if you want us to take care of the butter), Relish Plate, & a Dessert
 
(Clearly each important Thanksgiving food group was covered...especially dessert!)
 
Here's a bit more of what was planned for the big day:
 
"After the feast has been consumed and whatever's left (if anything) is put away, we have several games planned. Some will require enormous skill and some will be no more than dumb luck, we'll even have individual events and team competitions, as we begin the Horrocks Family Thanksgiving Olympics. Prizes will be awarded to all winners....

There will also be paper and writing utensils so that we can all send greetings to Becky. We'll be sure to include crayons and such for those who may wish to draw her a picture.

Our plan is be finished early enough to prepare for Black Friday (everybody bring your Black Friday ads), those not interested in participating in the shopping mania, other games will be continuing."

We also asked the families for the following:

"Please send us a brief update on each member of your family (including Mom & Dad) with 2-3 highlights of their life since our last family gathering in July. These can be anything you think they would like our family to know about them. We will all be figuring out who's who with this information. We need these items by Friday, November 19th please."

The wheels continued to turn. Once everything was planned, we began gathering supplies and prizes needed.

THE BIG DAY! Dan and I went early to the church to set up:

When Amanda and Sid arrived at our place, we put them to work making the stuffing:

Amanda's watching and waiting for the water to boil.

The pot was aluminum so it took waaaaaaayyyyyyy longer than normal to boil. Yeah to Sid for figuring out the problem so the stuffing could be finished!

Dan and I tried to catch a quick nap before the big extravaganza while Amanda and Sid were cooking.

Then it was time for everyone to arrive!!!!!

On all the chairs were two puzzles for everyone to do--one was a word search with everyone's name, including Grandma and Grandpa Horrocks. The other was a crossword with the clues being the updates received about each family member. (The internet is such a GREAT tool for finding sites to make word puzzles for free!)

Everyone arrived, they took their seats, and began working on the word puzzles while waiting for the food to be put out and the prayer to be said...

Finally the food was all out....

Time to say the prayer...

(Not quite the 1:00 that was planned.)

...and not a moment too soon. :).

It was time to eat...but only after everyone finished the word puzzles!

Sign of a true Horrocks, games before food no matter the occasion! :)

After dinner, and before dessert, we then began the rest of the Thanksgiving Extravaganza!

Games; lightening, Yahtzee, dominos, puzzles-but not played in the "typical" fashion, they had Uncle Dan's twists and tweeks...

...of course scores were kept, another true Horrocks trait! Uncle Dan did his magical mathematics to determine the rankings for all 25 family members (including Cousin Kelli):

While the calculations were being made, others occupied themselves with other things:

The tallies were completed and it was time to hand out the prizes! No one was excluded, Cousin Rebecca, already on her mission in St. Louis, received a gift too; "Kiss Me" socks complete with mistletoe! Others received games, books, calendars, glow-in-the-dark dinosaurs, Thanksgiving centerpieces Dan and I decorated, mini photo albums...

...cars (Hummers to be exact) for the soon to be 16-year-olds

...and we can't forget the prize for Sid...our next missionary to head out into the field in only a couple months...

...THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS TO WAIT FOR HIM!

(Her banner says "Future Mrs. Sid Horrocks!" and she has a picture of Sid, which has been kissed, and a note saying "My Heart Belongs to Sid")

The food was eaten....



 In some cases just licked....








...a family photo of the Bert & Ione Horrocks Descendents (except our missionary, Rebecca):

...the leftovers wrapped and put away...

...time to head to our homes with full stomachs, uplifted spirits, fond memories, and anticipation for our next  Horrocks family gathering!

It's Back!

I have been without my video icon on the tool bar for months now causing my posts to lack some of the funniest and best parts. I finally figured out how to make it work again....So here, in no particular order, are the videos I've promised but been unable to post:

Amanda Singing to a Playmill Guest:


Somewhere West of Denver:

A Lightening Storm in Southeast Idaho:

Sid's Graduation:

Wedding Craziness:

Amanda's Preshow Number at the Playmill:
(I wish this one was longer the batteries ran out after 7 seconds!)

Last, but certainly not least...Sid Opening His Mission Call:

A Treck-via-Truck (Moving Truck That Is...)

Mom and Dad just sold their house in the Chicago area. They purchased a house in Southern Utah to retire to and will be moving there probably in March or April.

As they prepared to put their house on the market they needed to move some things out of their old house and into their new house so it was emptier for staging. Kevin was set to fly out and then drive a moving truck back filled with Mom & Dad's things as well as treasures each one of us kids still had stored at the house.

Well, Kevin "decided" to spend a few days in the hospital and be grounded from flying for 30 days. Dan and I were called upon to see if we could come out and help. We had been talking about going back to visit before Mom and Dad moved and we didn't have a free hotel in Chicago. We checked our schedules and found the time would work for us to come.

Since we had to drive back and directly to Southern Utah, we decided to make a vacation out of the drive. The planning began...where to go, which days, who to stay with, what to see, etc. We decided to visit Church History sights in Nauvoo and Carthage, Illinois, and Missouri. Once the general itinerary was set we called family and friends for places to stay; Uncle Keith and Aunt Barbara in Bountiful, Aunt Jane, Uncle Chris, and Cousin Mary in Nauvoo, friends Greg and Keri Wilson in Kansas City, Missouri, Aunt Nancy and Uncle Keith in Cedar City, Utah.

We had estimated our departure and arrival times, none of which were even close to accurate from the start of the trip. Despite that, we had a GREAT trip!

Here are more details and pictures of our trek:

You Really Aren't Forgotten

I've been working on an update post ALL DAY. I promise its coming. I'm almost done but need to get some things done around the house before Dan gets home from work. Maybe when I return blogger won't be so temperamental and I'll be able to finish the post in just a few minutes rather than the hours it's taken so far. Why or why does this have to be so difficult????!!!!!

Is He Live or Is He Memorex?

Yesterday we received the following from Sid's Mission President:

We both laughed pretty hard after reading the letter. It has to be one of the funniest letters we've ever read. Very direct, straight to the point, and pretty hilarious! :) We're hoping that Sid wasn't just Photoshopped in...

That Was Easy and Painless!

We are back on-line in our home!!! The laptop took all of 5 minutes to hook up to the internet. This morning I took about 30 seconds to connect our desktop to the internet too. (Dan leaves for an overnight in Seattle tomorrow and is taking the laptop with him. I'm not really wanting to go without the internet for the day-and-a-half he's gone after waiting so long to get it set up in our place.) Now if only unpacking the boxes and organizing our house would go as quickly...