So after church and a little nap for me after the cry fest and resulting headache from being released from Primary today (a post of its own is forth coming about this event), we got dinner going. I did come down to find that Jared had prepped the salmon, set the table, and had his purple cabbage special ready to go which was a welcomed sight. What ensued next was the best part of being in this family..... the two older boys know how to cook and I'm not talking about simple dishes like pasta and sauce or breakfasts, oh no. Both Caleb and Liam are well beyond that and can google a recipe, follow the directions, and make some incredible dishes. At the moment Caleb is making his favorite breakfast: Ebelskivers and I never enter the kitchen until they are completely done! On Super Bowl Sunday Liam made pecan bars which I made last year for Thanksgiving, and we all agreed that his were much better than mine and I will admit that when I made them the following week for a funeral, I asked him some advice like if he packed the brown sugar or not. In the moment I seriously could not believe that I was asking my 10 year old for cooking advice. Yet, despite my best efforts, Liam's were still voted best and I had to swallow my pride! So today we all worked in the kitchen making the remaining parts of the meal: strawberry soup, cheese scones, and orzo with mixed veggies and fresh parmesan. Per the tradition, we ate by candlelight, laughed at silly things, talked about how much we love being in our family, and were surprised with secret notes from Jonah whose phonetic spelling is priceless! I can always tell when the loving feeling start to flow because Jonah can't stop hugging me....it's very tender!
After dinner we moved to the table to play a game of Ticket to Ride Europe, a game that will be remembered best by Liam or me winning, Jared asking a million times if people could be more quiet and stop banging their cards on the table or clicking the Kendama in his ear or making any number of other annoying sounds, laughing at said annoying sounds, someone crying because they didn't win (we have about a 90% hit rate with this), Jonah losing interest at some point and moving to the floor to be with Ruby or changing teams if he sees his first pick is not going to pull off a win, and waiting for Jared or Liam to get the big 8-train tunnel worth 21 points. Now, so as to not be confused as this image of family game night may sound horrible, it is not....all of these things are what make it a Harris game night and we love it! Liam correctly predicted at dinner that because of this feeling he had "deep down" that he would be the winner and I on the other hand did not share that feeling and I came in 3rd. Gavin was tied for the longest train and was devastated when he came in 4th place. Lots of tears until I reminded him of banana cream pie and coupon books. This year I included things like 1 hour of Wii or computer time, 2 music practices could be missed, one day off from school, lunch with dad, date with mom, could grow out hair for one extra month, stay up late, sleepover with dad, and a few others. Last year they didn't even come close to using all their coupons which I think was a lesson learned as I did not agree to extend them beyond the expiration period (what's the point of that). So I predict that there will be a faster turnover this year.
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| The "love" poster we had up for a few weeks |
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