Newhard/Peters' Thanksgiving 2012

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Carmel, IN with the Newhard clan.  Everybody meets at Lee and Sally's house on the Saturday after Thanksgiving to eat as much of Andrew's famous mashed potatoes as they can.  Well, there is other stuff too of course, a delicious turkey, sweet potato pie, stuffing, all of the favorites, but rumor has it that if Andrew's mashed potatoes aren't there, it isn't Thanksgiving.   

My wonderful husband is amazing in the kitchen and definitely manly enough to wear his mother's apron.

Henry made a new friend, Elizabeth.  She is the daughter of Andrew's cousin Laura.  Laura couldn't make the trip, but we were lucky enough that Elizabeth's grandparents brought her so we could meet her and find out what a wonderful little girl she is.  Henry and her had quite a connection.

These are the second cousins, from left to right: Christine, Kyle, Henry, Ella, Christopher and Elizabeth.  It is always fun to watch this group play together.

Terry is the wife of Andrew's cousin, Mike.  Henry was so content with Terry he didn't want to leave her and she didn't want to let him go, but eventually he was passed along.

Henry loved Christopher (and his brother Kyle, pictured later) and nearly fell asleep on him at one point.  Christopher is an eighth grader who is just awesome.  We didn't talk all that much, but just watching him play with his little cousins I can tell that he is a caring kid.  I also noticed that he was playing games on his electronic notebook, or whatever it was, and it wasn't a shooting game or anything like that, but a problem solving puzzle type game.  How often do you see that with an eighth grade boy?  

Ella, Chuck and Henry were watching some after Thanksgiving Saturday football.  Ella is a first grader who says what is on her mind. 

Christine, Ella's big sister, did a great job with Henry.  He is getting sleepy at this point, but that didn't phase her one bit.  Christine is a fifth grader who wants to be a veterinarian and already knows some of the scientific names for animals.  Pretty sure this girl is going places.

Henry is getting a little cranky here, but we really wanted to get a picture of him with Great Aunt Bonnie, Sally's mom's sister.  Great Aunt Bonnie did not feel like she should hold Henry so, Aunt Becky is helping out.

Mike (Andrew's cousin, Terry's husband, Kyle and Christopher's dad) is pictured here with Henry.  Now the funny thing about this picture is that it took about six shots to get it right.  No, not because of Henry, but because I couldn't catch Mike with his eyes open.  Thanks for stickin with me until I got a good one Mike!

Kyle is the oldest of the second cousins.  He is a senior this year and just an amazing young man.  First of all, he was great with Henry.  He just sat and rocked him for the longest time.  He speaks Japanese, wants to go into International Business, went to Boys State this past summer and is very patient with the younger cousins.  I asked Terry (his mom) what she did to get two such amazing kids (Kyle and Christopher) and she said regular beatings.  Well, okay, if that's what works. :-)

Aunt Sue, Sally's younger sister, was playing peek-a-boo with Henry.  I didn't get a picture of the moment he really enjoyed this game, so by this point he was kind of over it. 

This is a picture of four out of the five siblings with their Aunt Bonnie.  Left to right: Mike, Sally, Jim, Aunt Bonnie, Sue.  

The day we got together just happened to be Jim's 70th birthday.  So, to go along with all the other yummy food, we had birthday cake.  What's a birthday without party hats?  Great idea to bring the hats, Elizabeth! Happy Birthday, Jim! 

By the end of the day we were all exhausted.  Andrew had been cooking and cleaning all day, Henry was passed from one person to the next and we were all in food comas.  Another great Thanksgiving!