Well, we got to spend some time with our nieces and nephew today, since Marie had to finish a school paper. We brought coloring books and Play-Dough to their house to keep them busy for a while. Ian noticed right away that we had some colorful stuff with us. He asked us "that?" (as in, what is that). We told him it was stuff so we could play with him and Cara. He liked that idea. First we got out the coloring books and the washable crayons. We got a Bob the Builder coloring book for Ian and Cinderella for Cara. We talked about the colors and the pictures, we traded crayon colors. We drew some pictures. Ian told David to draw a dolphin, and then he told him that his drawing was good. Then he told him to draw a whale, a sea star and some fish. Cara doesn't talk much yet, but she would scribble a little bit and then throw her arms up and yell "daaaa" and start laughing. We just played along and yelled "ta-daa" with her every time, but later Marie said that was her word for "star". Oh, well, we had fun with them. They colored for about 45 minutes before Cara was rubbing her eyes, the hint that she was ready for a nap. I was surprised she lasted that long.
Then Ian said "other?" meaning that he wanted to play with the other thing we brought. I told him "why don't you show Uncle David your cars, then we will play with the other thing we brought?". It gave me some time to clean up the coloring stuff. Well after about 2 minutes, if that, he said he was done with the cars and he was ready to do "other". So we got to introduce Ian to Play-Dough for the first time. He thought it was the best stuff ever. We got a kit that had cookie cutters of animal shapes and geometric shapes. It came with a spaghetti maker, which Ian liked because it made "worms". I made him a spider by attaching 8 worms to a ball of dough. David taught him how to use the roller and cutters and they made lots of sharks and "sea stars". I made him a frog and I asked Ian if he and Dave could make a lily pad for it. He got really tired by the end (about an hour later) but didn't want to stop playing when it was time for his "quiet time". We told him that we would bring it again another time. Dave put him down for a nap.
They are such bright children. Marie thanked us for sitting with them and giving them some individual attention. We had as much fun as they did.
So, in retrospect, we could have all had one Thanksgiving together, but it turned out we had two. On Thursday, at my mom's house we shared it with our friends from out of town, then Saturday we shared it with family on David's side from Medford and friends' family from out of town. There were over 20 people--I lost track. It was fun, though. Grandma Voyla and Aaron shared pictures and video from their trip to China. We all cooked together in the Raynors' kitchen. We met Stephanie's parents for the first time since her and Ken got married. We were happy that Kelly and Brandon were able to come down to share it with us. 
