A lamplit living room, a candle burning, peace and quiet, a clean house, sleeping children, husband home on holiday......a very nice way to welcome Thanksgiving Day(Canadian). Yes, I must admit, it's past midnight....but you notice I mentioned peace and quiet?-an hour ago that was not the case. :D Since there is no school or work tomorrow, we let the kids go pile in the girls' room and watch a movie to go to sleep. James and Jane were out. But Gabe and Grace, our two night owl movie-holics, lasted a loooong time! Then Grace decided to join Mommy and Daddy to put on a "cute show", and boy did she perform. Sweet as sugar, cute little blondie, wrapping herself around our fingers. Decided she was hungry(at eleven o' clock), and she wanted 'moatmeal'(oatmeal) and cranberry sauce. To prevent another kitchen cleanup we decided to feed her ourselves. She had Mommy spooning oatmeal and Daddy spooning cranberry sauce, sitting there as pretty as you please. Princess treatment indeed! She can never claim she is not loved. 
What a relaxing weekend we have had, such a blessing and change from our busy week. Richard began a new session of hockey Friday night. He plays at eleven so he doesn't have to take away from family time. We miss watching him play, but it's really hard to maneuver four kids in a hockey rink anyway, so I don't mind too much. When they're older...
Saturday we had a great sibling family Thanksgiving dinner. We got family pictures. The cousins had so much fun; they're all the right ages to play together. They tried to put on a Christmas play with "Superman commercials". It was a big, funny, jumbled up mess, but fun conversation piece for the grown ups. Let's just say Gabe, H, and C are all oldest children and strong leaders....have you ever heard the phrase "too many cooks in the kitchen"?-um, yeah....hilarious to watch.
I made an observation that family tends to like similar foods. So family dinners present a fascinating blend of foods that everyone enjoys, cooked just the way everyone likes. There's an element there that is not present at a church potluck. Being related makes a big difference. It's sort of like hearing a trio or quartet sing that is made up of sisters or brothers; that family thing is huge.
Well, it IS late and I have a houseful of munchkins who will awaken earlier than I like to admit, eager to play games, make Thanksgiving crafts, and "help" make jello and pumpkin pie. And of course eat everything in sight. I would like to wish all you who are Canadian "Happy Thanksgiving"; and to the rest of you, yours will be here in a month! :D