I'm thankful for Schnaubelt Thanksgivings

Thanksgiving is a holiday I've come to treasure as it's a 4 day get together with the Schnaubelt side of the family. It is almost mandatory attendance for everyone. We used to always have it at mom and dad's house. As the family grew bigger with marriages, we shared the responsibility among siblings rotating from home to home. As the family continues to get bigger with the additional grandchildren, we decided to try something different. We rented a big house and designated a "host" for the weekend to delegate out responsibilities and meal preparations. This year's chosen house was in Two Rivers WI, http://www.vrbo.com/51361, right on Lake Michigan. It was plenty big for the 24 of us and there was even quite a bit of unused space. Here are a few pics of the view from the windows of the house:

The house bordered the Point Beach State Park property and is perfect for trail hikes, however, it was hunting season and none of us brought blaze orange to protect us from the eager and hungry hunters. We walked the beach each day to burn off the Tday weekend calories instead, not too bad of a walk! Here's a pic of Mary Esther and Annie.


Will liked playing games (Chase is his favorite now) on the beach, too!
One of the best things about renting a house is that the hosting duties did not fall on one family. I think this was the most relaxed Thanksgiving meal preparations we've had. Everyone was responsible for something. Mom cooked the turkey the day before and made the stuffing that morning, Jennifer made the salad and green beans, Mary Esther made her famous mashed potatoes, Mike made homemade cranberry sauce (overachiever), Annie made the pies, and I made the sweet potatoes. Everything was delicious!!!

Cooking the Thanksgiving meal:

Will is always excited to see any of his cousins. This was a very exciting weekend for him as all of his Schnaubelt cousins (except for Amanda) were there. Every morning he would wake up and ask to go see his cousins. And if we were out on a day excursion and came back to an empty house, he'd ask where all his cousins went. As everyone gathered around the table for meals, he would look around with happiness, saying "Mom, these are all my cousins!"

There was lots of time to play with his cousins and here's a picture of Uncle Ed giving blanket rides to Sophie, Sawyer and Will:

Two Rivers is only 10 minutes from Manitowoc and there was lots to do. We visited the local zoo, went on a wild GPS ride to find a local model train exhibit, went to the Maritime Museum and took a tour of the submarine. Here's a picture Popper took of Will at the Maritime Museum:

Noreen and John were missed terribly as they had to cancel their trip a few hours before their flight left. However, we still continued with Noreen's idea of the girls exchanging gifts of their "favorite things." Mom made everyone some of the prized Grandma Donahue "Best Chocolate Sauce Ever" and shared the recipe. Noreen sent everyone her and John's favorite spice rub for pork and steak. Annie gave everyone some pricey chocolate and some chocolate chap stick from a friend's shop in Barrington. Annie also brought her birthday present to share with everyone in the house, a heated seat massager...hopefully we didn't all wear it out! It was quite the hit! Mary Esther made ornaments out of her favorite beach glass from the beach near her house and also chose a poem from a book that reminded her of each of us. Renee gave everyone a box of her favorite treats from a local store near Green Bay. Jennifer made everyone a CD of her favorite tunes and samples of some seasonal scented bath wash. I gave everyone seeds for my favorite garden flower, the Purple Coneflower. Here's a picture of us sampling some of Annie's chocolates she brought to share:

The Leitings took the beautiful Thanksgiving day and landscape opportunity for some family photos:It was a wonderful weekend spent with family and we hope we can do future Thanksgivings this way!!