Many Thanks

 

Mommy: "Are you guys ready for Thanksgiving? Daddy had to work last night so we will have dinner when he wakes up."

 

Tamayuki: "Can I help cook?" *claps his hands excitedly*

 

Rainie: "Yuriko and me are going to have a video game tournament. Daddy said we could."

 

Yuriko: "Do we get snacks? I want snacks with lots of sugar. And maybe some popcorn because Native Americans used to eat that. How about caramel corn? Nah, just skip the popcorn and give me the caramels."

 

Naiomi: "What is there to do now that the Thanksgiving Day parade is over?"

 

Dolly: *Whispers to Iron Man* "Ready... aim..."

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A little while later...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Tamayuki: "There, that looks like it is mixed enough."

 

 

Naiomi: "What are you up to Tama-chan?"

 

Tamayuki: "I'm helping make a pie. It will be little just for us! Mommy said I'm old enough to learn to cook. When she was my age, Grammy Pammy had her doing lots of cooking."

 

 

Tamayuki: "Mommy even started decorating cakes when she was as little as me and Rainie. She said that they weren't very good, but it was still fun. Are you going to help cook Naiomi?"

 

Naiomi: "Papa told me to be a big help to Mama today, and I asked her if I could do anything. She had me open a can of olives. After my cooking at Halloween she doesn't want to trust me in the kitchen with a spoon."

 

 

Tamayuki: "Yay I did it and it didn't rip!"

 

Naiomi: "Good job Tama-chan!"

 

*Somewhere in the background shouts erupted*

 

Yuriko: "Rainie, quit playing sniper on me! We are supposed to be on the same team since we are both stormtroopers!"

 

Rainie: "You only think I'm a stormtrooper when I am really part of the rebel forces. My disguise is flawlwss!"

 

Dolly: "Hurry and grab that frag grenade Rainie! Chuck it at her before she can run away."

 

*a loud boom proceeds the two young combatants fit of giggling*

 

 

Naiomi: "Are you supposed to poke holes in the crust? Won't the filling leak out and make a mess?"

 

Tamayuki: "If you don't poke holes it will get bubbles under it and spill out all the filling. Pie crusts are kinda silly that way."

 

Yuriko: "If THAT'S how your gonna play... Take this!"

 

Dolly: "Incoming!"

 

*another loud boom sounds*

 

Rainie: "Medic! Where's my medic pack?"

 

 

Naiomi: "Here is the rubber scraper."

 

Tamayuki: "Thanks. What kind of pie do you like best Naiomi?"

 

Naiomi: "Hmmm... well on Thanksgiving it would have to be pumpkin. But if it wasn't a special holiday it would be lemon meringue. Or maybe cherry, but then there is peach too... and rhubarb! But how about Mama's chocolate peanut butter pie..."

 

Tamayuki: "Grammy Pammy made a thirty-two pickle pie once."

 

Naiomi: "Pickle pie? Ewww..."

 

Tamayuki: "She made it for Grandpa Day and he liked it because she used sweet pickles. Sounds like something Rainie would want. She put pickles on her pizza last week."

 

 

Naiomi: "I don't know what is wrong with that girl. The only thing that makes her seem like a girl is her long hair and she wears skirts sometimes. What little girl doesn't like dresses and frilly things but instead would rather play in the dirt? Once I found her digging up worms and asked her if she was going fishing. She said that she was relocating them to a safer location so they wouldn't be hurt during her spy troop training."

 

Tamayuki: "I bet that didn't make the worms happy that they had to find new homes." *takes a deep breath to yell into the kitchen with his tiny voice* "Mommy, I'm done making the pie!"

 

Mommy: "Ok dearheart, I'll get it in just a minute."

 

~~~~~~~~~

Dinnertime

~~~~~~~~~

 

Mommy: "Rainie, you need to eat some veggies. Ask Yuriko to pass you the peas."

 

Rainie: *talks with a mouth full of food* "But Mama, I have pumpkin rolls and olives. They are veggies. And there is apples in my cider so I have fruit too."

 

Yuriko: "All that cranberry sauce is mine! I'm a sweet-atarian so I have to eat all the good stuff."

 

Dolly: "Gimmie lots of that turkey!"

 

Tamayuki: "That's not turkey, Dolly. Mommy and Daddy are vegetarians. It's pretend meat that Mommy made from garbanzo beans and some wheat stuff. I like it a lot because it is yummy."

 

Dolly: "What's Thanksgiving without meat? And leftover turkey sandwiches with lots of mayo?"

 

Naiomi: "Don't worry Dolly, I can make us some hamburgers or turkeyburgers tomorrow."

 

Tamayuki: "My favorite leftovers are smashed potatoes, pumpkin rolls and cranberry butter!"

 

Daddy: "The best Thanksgiving dinner is fake meat sandwiches on pumpkin rolls dripping with gravy!"

 

 

Dolly: "Whoever attacks the pie first gets the biggest piece!"

 

Tamayuki: "Wait, I have to take a picture of my pie first!"

 

Daddy: "What kind do you want Rainie?"

 

Rainie: "Um... I want both."

 

Naiomi: "Do I eat pecan pie now and save some pumpkin for tomorrow? If I do will Yuriko eat it all before I get any? Pumpkin pie is better the second day but it doesn't quite feel like Thanksgiving without it."

 

Yuriko: *chuckles to herself* "I have the first course of my dessert right here..."

 

Daddy: "And here is my piece of pie..." *takes the whole people sized pumpkin pie*

 

Mommy: "Hey, I wanted a piece of that too you know!"

 

~~~~~

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. I had such fun doing this photo story, especially knowing that I'd be able to share it with all of you. Originally I had planned on doing a more extensive Tamayuki and Naiomi cooking show style of story, but my back problems really started to act up. I'm sorry that Rainie looks weird without a faceup or a mouth. She has technically been around since Tamayuki got here. Since she had to miss out on Halloween (because of her face) she wasn't going to tolerate missing another holiday, especially one that is all about family. I thought it might be interesting for those who don't celebrate the holiday to see a little of what Thanksgiving can be like. There is so many little things in here that remind me what it was like when I was a kid. I was always helping my mom with small cooking chores (never pie crust though), me and my siblings tried to stay out of the kitchen because we would almost always be in the way, until mom hollered at us to help. Every holiday after my brother got his NES he was constantly playing it in the background, often me being the backseat gamer because he wouldn't let me touch it.

 

A lot of work was put into getting this done and still being able to celebrate the holiday, yet even days later my heart is still full of happiness. I was really unsure what it would be like spending Thanksgiving with our DD instead of my rowdy family (I just couldn't deal with people after stress from school.) It was so much fun that I don't regret it at all. I had hoped to get more of a complete story in, but it just gives me more to look forward to next year when I will have a better idea of what I'm doing and more space. Every time I do these stories I find out more about my kids, and see how each one of them reacts. For way too many years, any holidays seemed to be more effort than they were worth, but now with our DD I have a reason to care. Never before have I found such a rewarding and worthwhile hobby.

 

~Sister Kyoya

Belated Happy Thanksgiving.

 

I really envy you guys. That food looks scrumptious. Tamayuki, your pie looks really tasty. Millie is asking for the recipe so she can make Yuuto some. Your Mom must be really proud of you.

 

I love all the scale utensils and plates and stuff. You have such a lovely family.

This was just the cutest Thanksgiving story ever I was waiting to see if these pictures were going to be turned into a story and you made my wish come true Like I said before, I love that there was a real meal set before your DD family and that they helped put it together. Very creative photos

Belated Happy Thanksgiving.

 

I really envy you guys. That food looks scrumptious. Tamayuki, your pie looks really tasty. Millie is asking for the recipe so she can make Yuuto some. Your Mom must be really proud of you.

 

I love all the scale utensils and plates and stuff. You have such a lovely family.

 

Hi Nyanko Sensei! I had lots of fun at Thanksgiving and Mommy and Daddy ate with us even though they didn't take pictures of them. Mommy said that the recipe is the same that's on the can of Libby's canned pumpkin but she just adds lots more spice. She doesn't like making pie crust so I helped. Grammy Pammy (Mommy's mommy) can make really good crusts but Mommy said that every time she tries she goofs it up somehow. Everything else she makes everybody likes a lot, just not her crusts that are like roofing tiles. Cooking is lots and lots of fun! I get to make some cookies before Christmas, sugar cookies, Mommy's special fruitcake cookies, and some gingerbread guys (Daddy likes them spicy). I bet my sisters will help too so we can have lots of fun. I don't want Yuriko eating them all though.

 

~Tamayuki

 

I'm glad that I finally have a use for all the AG sized dishes I've been collecting for years. One thing I did realize though is I don't have any scale measuring cups or measuring spoons. I had originally planned for Tamayuki to make the pumpkin rolls and have the step by step recipe with it, but it was too much for my brain to deal with at the time.

 

The pie plates were a complete accident because we found them at the dollar store in a two pack of snack pecan pies. The pink cups were also from the dollar store that my mom got because they were AG sized and had more than she needed. That's the only reason she would have bought a multipack of shot glasses. Most of the glasswear and ceramic bowls were sold as finger bowls or small spice bowls like I've seen on some cooking shows. The pink plate that Dolly is using and the white spoons were from a little girl's tea set, and the Christmas plates I found at a second hand store. Those places can be great for little things like that.

 

This was just the cutest Thanksgiving story ever I was waiting to see if these pictures were going to be turned into a story and you made my wish come true Like I said before, I love that there was a real meal set before your DD family and that they helped put it together. Very creative photos

 

Woops, I guess I should put the thread link in the flickr photo descriptions. I did that when I first started posting the stories but then I didn't know if anyone even noticed.

 

It was a lot of fun doing DD scale food of what Raven and I were eating. I'm surprised the rolls didn't burn (thanks to Raven), they were about the size of a small grape. The cranberry sauce was the most time-consuming because I cut out every triangle of it from a couple of slices from the can. Yes it was a little pointless but it wouldn't look right to me otherwise. Having a lot of the food shaped erasers is fun (we have a quart sized bag full of them) but it just doesn't beat real food when it comes to photos. I'm still surprised that more of the DD on the forums don't seem to know how to cook.

 

~Sister Kyoya

That is amazing! Everything looks delicious! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Thank you! Raven and I actually had a really nice Thanksgiving. I'm the only vegetarian in my family so Thanksgiving is often one of those slightly annoying holidays where my family doesn't get why Raven and I prefer to stay home. I have to make everything I'm going to eat anyway so it was a lot less work not going this year.

 

I find it rather funny that it was because of Thanksgiving that I finally became vegetarian. Eight years ago my mom was in India and it was the first year that I could have the holiday at our house with my sisters. It's not like I hadn't helped mom with everything before since I was a teen. Long story short, for some reason that year the sight of the raw turkey almost made me lose it. (Raven's favorite animal is a turkey and he's wanted one for a pet for years.) By January I was completely vegetarian. Dolly's comment about the leftovers for sandwiches was me when I was 10. Unlike my mother-in-law, I have no problems with meat-like textures, I just don't like that it had been an animal. So having the 'fake turkey' filled in the one thing that had been missing for me (a recipe my sister sent me three days before the holiday), making it feel like the first real Thanksgiving in 8 years.

 

Thankfully there wasn't too much grumbling from the DD from the lack of the traditional bird. Naiomi was outwardly not pleased but was still nice about it, Rainie was happy with the rolls and olives but also wanted a bologna sandwich, and Dolly kept accusing me of trying to get sneaky with getting him to eat weird food. Tama-chan on the other hand had the biggest pile of mashed potatoes and has said that he doesn't think he's vegetarian, but when given the choice he doesn't eat meat and hates hamburgers. Yuriko will eat anything, but if there are sweets she will snarf those first. She only had one pea on her plate so I couldn't complain about her lack of veggies.

 

~Sister Kyoya

The lab is pretty diverse so we always have vegetarian options at get togethers. A lot of traditional foods can be vegetarian because meat is expensive. I love vegetables and fruits, so I don't mind not eating meat.

 

It can be really hard to get family to understand anytime you do things differently. I am glad you were able to stay home and have such a nice Thanksgiving.

That is amazing! Everything looks delicious! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

 

As the official taste-tester, I can vouch that the food really was delicious! Her Pumpkin rolls are always incredible, but the "roast" she made was amazing. The gravy was naturally fantastic, since I made that part. But as usual, the pie was the best part. Even completely sugar-free, so I didn't have to give myself an extra shot beforehand, but you wouldn't know it from the taste.

 

low-key holidays are always the best. Especially when you can avoid the hordes of screaming kids, and even worse, the "adults" screaming back at them. Even though it was about 4 am by the time we ate, it was still great.

 

And, SK, Pumpkin is kind of a vegetable... (Ok, I think it's probably technically a fruit, but close enough) and there was pumpkin in both the rolls and the pie, so Yuriko's pea was actually just extra.

Oh wow it looks like your DD's had alot of fun and look at all the food! YUMMY! I have to say you did a really good job haha I love at the end were Tamayuki is like WAIT I gotta take a picture of it first lol that was too cute!

That was a fantastic post !! Your girls are so lively !

I wish my girls could cook , I really hate cooking ....and I miss homemade food