The best part of Thanksgiving was having Parker Bryce home from college. It's such a short break and school is so far away that it can be tricky to make happen, but I'm glad it worked out this year. He adds laughter, teasing, the best hugs, long walks, insight into family scripture study, a helping hand and so much more.
He stopped by to visit Gram and Grandpa and got put on baby duty when Gram headed to bed.
Aub started her new job at Sodariffic over the break, and we stopped by to visit. She is loving it so far. She only has three in person classes at Permian and two online dual credit classes. Working gives her more purpose in her day and more freedom with spending opportunities. One of her besties, Maiya, works there too which adds to the fun.
We went bowling as a family. Kaide LOVES bowling and was such a good sport. He came in talking about "pins! pins!" and he would patiently wait for his turn. He high fived and cheered everyone on. It was adorable.
Parker took Kaide into the little arcade room at the bowling alley before we left.
We met in Kerry's shop for Thanksgiving and had a great time. This year I wanted to have a couple of concrete activities for the fam to participate in after the meal. After some brainstorming and tossing ideas out to family members, I went with cornhole and Bingo. I wasn't sure how much the extended family would embrace either, but I figured it couldn't hurt trying.
I stole the Bingo idea from my college roomy, Thelma. Her family does a large scale Bingo game each year at Thanksgiving. How do I know this? I've read about it on her blog! I called her to get a better vision of exactly what takes place. She just started chuckling. She gave me a few pointers and then really emphasized the prizes: everyone wins something and there is a wide array. Got it!
Brit, Ang, Beth, my dad and I each brought several $5-$10 prizes and they variety was awesome! (gift cards, candy, hot chips, fuzzy socks, nerf gun blasters, puzzles, Squishmallows, coloring book w/ crayons, journal, markers etc...) Thelma was right...the gifts made a difference...everyone was committed!
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| Jeff, Davey & Erin Freeman |
The cards were fun because I specialized lots of squares to our family: Quetta's banana pudding, Britney's pies, Kerry's shop, Disney cruise, Grandpa's pictures, Heated pool, Cousins Make the Best Friends, Movie Night etc. I spent probably 20 hours creating them and then still needed to print on cardstock and laminate. It took much more time and expense than I expected. I kind of wish I just went with my original thought to purchase a BINGO game from Amazon. Oh well. Hopefully we will revisit this game in future years. I would love for it to become a "tra-Vore-tion."
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Lft-rt: Brian, Sutton & Becky Merkley, Brit & Adam Bird
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I love looking at these pictures of everyone enjoying Bingo because I just wasn't sure how it would turn out. Several of my siblings and my dad were like "What? You are making us do what?" Once it began though, it was happening! I wish a got a picture of the stacked prize table because it really was awesome.
Brian was amazing and headed up the cornhole tournament which was happening. He didn't get as much hang out time in after Thanksgiving lunch because he was busy being the tournament director. We had two corn holes set up, and he made a bracket. Grandpa donated prize money ($100!), and everyone chose their own teams. It was fun to see the wide variety of teams.
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| Becca (Braddock's gf) and Aubrey |
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| Braddock and Hudson (Braddock and Becca were a team and Aub and Hudson another) |
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| Char, Blair, Park and Holden |
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| Griffin & Nate |
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| Aub looking like a supermodel. |
The champions!
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| Erin Meisje & Brian G |
The runners-up
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| Park & Benja |
During lunch, we slipped outside and took a quick family picture since my siblings were all in town. I'm so glad we did! I wish we would have taken time to get the whole group. Also, this whole post is basically in reverse order. First we ate, then Bingo and then cornhole and hanging out. We did a 12:00 time too so my mom/parents could come and also so those who needed to get to the other side of their family for round two of Thanksgiving.
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| Brit, Kerry, me (Erin), Chris, Nate, Becky, Mom (Laurel) & Dad (Steve) |
Hold w/ his baby, Olivia
These cousins enjoying the coloring book from the Bingo game.
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Char, Blair & Lauron
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It was nice to have Beck, Brian & fam in town even if it was only for a couple of days.
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| Tanner, Kaide & Erin |
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| Kerry, Benja, Chris & Quetta |
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| Perry & Beth |
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| Becca & Braddock |
The ERINS chatting it up!
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| Erin Flores Gwilliam, Erin Vore Gwilliam, & Erin Vore Freeman w/ her baby Davey |
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| Nate w/ Mom and Dad |
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Erin & Becky
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I love this picture! Nate & Beth are so cute w/ all the kids and have a special bond w/ the Merkley kiddos.
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| Sutton, Nate & Beth |
Jake & Charity are always pulling double duty when they are in town because Jake's family lives here too. They are happy and sweet and if you blink, you miss them!
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| Jake, Charity & Ang |
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| John & Shari Martin (Ang's parents) w/ Carol Barr (a lady from church) |
The teen table
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| Left: Hudson, La & Erin (EFG) Right: Aubrey, Becca & Braddock |
We had a great Thanksgiving break.
I randomly decided to put the post in Chat GPT hoping for grammar feedback, but I didn't specify that. It gave me this summary of our break/this post instead--kind of cute:
It sounds like you had such a warm, lively, and memorable Thanksgiving with your family! From Parker Bryce's return home from college to the fun activities like Bingo and cornhole, there were so many special moments. It's wonderful that you created meaningful traditions, like the personalized Bingo cards and the cornhole tournament, even if it took some extra time and effort. The pictures of everyone together, the cozy family moments, and the enjoyment of simple activities, like Kaide’s enthusiasm for bowling, really paint a picture of a joyful, connected holiday.
I love how you embraced both tradition and innovation—mixing familiar Thanksgiving comfort with fresh ideas for fun. It’s clear you put a lot of thought and love into making the gathering something special for everyone, and it’s great to see how all the family members, from the little ones to the adults, engaged in the activities. Thanks for sharing such a beautiful reflection of your Thanksgiving!
