As I have mentioned here and here, we've made it our Thanksgiving tradition to go to Talkeetna for Thanksgiving and enjoy an amazing family style Thanksgiving dinner at the Talkeetna Roadhouse. This was our fourth year and the first time we didn't stay overnight in Talkeetna, instead we spent some quality time road-tripping with the family!
I never remember how amazing their hot chocolate is until someone else orders it. Someone needs to always reming me they have amazing hot chocolate. The sprinkling of cinnamon on top was just perfect today! It was actually pretty dreary out today - the snow is melting and it was misty and just yucky. Luckily, the climate is always nice inside the Roadhouse!
Dinner time! The contingent changed up this year - Matt's parents flew up for Thanksgiving and brought our nephew, Noah with them. We still managed to stake out the end of the table, but unfortunately for me it was the dark side of the room. It made getting decent photographs pretty challenging. :(
Thomas was such a champ with the dinner this year. He tried almost everything and amazingly ended up chowing down on beets. I didn't even try them and he was all about them! He didn't like everything, of course, but he certainly did better than last year's menu of bread and mashed potatoes. Plus I didn't even feel the need to pack him little kid plates - amazing how much kids can change in a year, huh?
To be fair, Henry got a big boy plate too, but he was considerably messier than Thomas. Here you can see him eyeballing his brother's plate - I think he was plotting to steal the bread. He actually gave Thomas some corn at one point - Thomas had eaten all of his and wanted more. What a caring little brother, huh?
After dinner, the boys were ready to play with all of the toys! Unfortunately, the Roadhouse added in an extra row of tables where the play area was last year, so it was pretty tight quarters to play with toys. I tried to keep them out of the walkways and they were good sports about it - as were all the other diners. We struck up several conversations with the people around us.
Thomas found the scooter from last year, but was much more interested in the trains. He did make sure to tell me that the scooter was the one he took last year and kept in our room upstairs. I was impressed with his memory - I can't remember hardly anything before age 6. Does that mean we overwrite memories as we age? Or does he have a super memory already?
Henry was not at all interested in napping after dinner like he did last year. He kept crawling up next to me on this couch and then back down again. I told him he should lay down next to me and take a nap. He dutifully laid his head down and made pretend sleeping noises. It was pretty adorable!
Then it was time for dessert! They both claimed to not be interested in pie until the people we were playing next to got their slices of pie. Suddenly my boys were ready to put up their toys and get pie. Amazingly, they didn't eat it once they got it. What kind of kid doesn't like apple pie?!? And for as adventurous as Thomas was for dinner, he refused to even try my pecan pie. His loss! Though I think it was my loss on the whipped cream, he snuck most of that off of my plate...
We decided to venture outside to check out the snow. The boys were pretty bummed ours all melted, but there was enough on the ground here that it was hanging around even with the warmer temperatures. Luckily there was plenty on the porch so we didn't have to attempt the super icy sidewalks.
Henry tried to kick the snow like his big brother and fell right in to it. He managed to catch himself and this was the face he made as soon as he stood back up. Apparently the snow was a little chilly on his bare hands. He was much more subdued with his snow kicking after that!
Noah was outside playing in the snow forever! I can't blame him - he doesn't get much of the white stuff back in Texas. He kept climbing up to the top of the big snow piles and jumping on them. I managed to catch him right after he fell into the snow. I think his Uncle Matt pushed him into the snow as soon as we got here, so he at least knew it wasn't going to hurt. Such a thoughtful Uncle!
Speaking of Noah, this is his first visit up to Alaska *and* the first time he's stayed with us since Thomas was a little baby. The boys have loved having their cousin for a visit - they may have been abusing the fact he is happy to play with them. I think they conned him into bean bag rides around the living room for about an hour the other day. Noah is a good sport!
Back to today - see this frowny face? Totally an act! He was just pretending to be bummed by the huge mountain of snow, well that or being told to go sit in it by his bossy aunt just because she wanted a photo of him in the giant snow "chair". Who knows! :)
Back home again! We got home a little late and I figured the boys needed to eat something before bed. In order to distract them from how past their bed it was, I let them play with their play-dog again. I even managed to find another rolling pin and cutting "knife" from their food toy set so there wasn't any fighting over tools. Win!
Last, but certainly not least, pie! I am maintaining my tradition of not making Thanksgiving dinner, but I love making pies! I decided to try a new recipe this year - the Cook's Illustrated Best" Pumpkin pie. As is usual for their recipes, it was a bit weird, but it was best one I have made so far. My oven (once again) make the edge of the crust a little too dark - the mark on the surface is from where I tried to save the crust with a pie shield and part of the filling stuck to it. Perfection eludes me these days, but it did taste amazing!
Happy Thanksgiving everybody! Hope everyone else got to spend it with people they love and is too stuffed to move! :)