Happy Thanksgiving!!!

The dishes have been washed, the two pounds of turkey (leftover from twenty-six) have been wrapped and packed away in the refrigerator and as I type this, all the Fischer boys are returning chairs to their rightful places around the house and bringing all the extra tables down to the basement.

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Elaine and her mama, Carly's GiGi

Paul, in the middle of telling me to put the stupid camera away and please don't take a million pictures. Right...
Elaine's flowers! She did such a good job and they looked beautiful.
Nineteen settings!
Great-Auntie Bea gave Carly this little lion and a bear that Carly kept at her side ALL day! (Great-Auntie Bea is Elaine's sister's (Diane) mother-in-law. There will be a quiz on Friday!)
My in-laws, who both look like they're about 35, with one very big turkey!
You wouldn't believe it by the look on her face, but Carly actually does love it when Paul picks her way, way up to touch the sky!
Carving time! It smelled sooo good!
Haha - okay - and now it's time for a series of very bad pictures of Katherine.

LAY-deeez, it ain't nothin' but a hairflip.
Oh yay! Pretty Kafren. She has no arms, but what a pretty smile!
Paul and Mace (Diane's husband - are you taking notes?) talking real estate while Great-Grandpop Matkowsky and Carly discuss Thomas and his friends.
The turkey and the turkey vultures shortly before Big Mama Fish kicked everyone out of the kitchen.

Carly and her "liddle picture" (sticky-note nametag).
Can you read this? Philly is the city of brotherly hazing. Except not hazing because Paul as a responsible Marine Corps officer does not believe in nor does he condone hazing in any form.
Diane and half of Mace's face with the SPREAD! They were each making plates for their moms (Gigi and Great-Auntie Bea, respectively).
Great Grandmom Fischer discussing Thomas with Carly.
Almost everyone, sort of sitting at the table. This is so pretty of Lisa (sitting right behind my goofball sister and Matt being cool).

FUSSY FACE

Our girl loves the limelight, but after a while she needs a break. This is when I put up the posts below this one. Look at that yucky face! Poor overwhelmed baby.
I'm not exactly sure why I loaded this picture....sorry.
Mama Fish and two of her boys.
Auntie Lisa (she's really a cousin, I don't want to confuse you too much!) colored with Carly for an hour after dinner. Auntie (for real) Anna's husband, Uncle Paul came over to talk to Carly and asked her to draw him a picture. She said, "Um, no, not today" without even looking up! Later I asked her why and she told me that we don't have "picture paper" which I'm assuming means paper that is not attached to a coloring book. =)
The Matkowsky sisters, primping for their closeup. Unfortunately, the closeups didn't come out well at all, and this is funny.

Oh my gosh and THEN the desserts!!! People, Aunt Diane brought three different kinds of cookies (pizzelles, these amazing almond paste cookies with pine nuts, and chocolate chip) and an apple cake and a white wine pound cake. Along with that we had pumpkin, coconut cream and apple pies AND later on (Peter's girlfriend) Amanda brought over chocolate covered pretzels and strawberries.
Three circles of homemade delicousness. Yummm.
Uncle Paul and Matty passed the heck out.
Uncle Tony (married to Aunt Louise, Auntie Lisa's mom - did you get all that?) and Uncle Mace hanging out in the movie chair. I'm loving the look on Uncle Tony's face right now.
All done! We had such a wonderful time! I can't wait to get the photos from Aunt Diane!

Tomorrow we're headed out to the King of Prussia, then we're going to see Aunt Diane and Uncle Mace again, then we're going to visit some folks and then see one of Paul's friends from high school. This is all before Paul and I go out with his friends from high school. Whew!