Thanksgiving 2007

Samuel children & Samuel cousins



five-ninths of our children



This was the second time Donny and I had all nine of our children in one place.  And it felt like 15 children.  And it was 15 children, as Donny’s mom and his two brothers and their children and one of their children’s friends joined us at three beach condos on Amelia Island, Florida. The laughter!  The mayhem!  Daniel did not get lost on this holiday, and Seth taught him to drive a rented golf-cart (the only golfing skill any of us has is steering the golf-cart to and from the grocery and gym).  And Yosef drove the golf-cart, and Helen drove the golf-cart, and Jesse drove the golf-cart, and, at each trip, an older sibling or cousin good-naturedly hung onto the front seat and screamed in terror. 

We played beach volleyball like this:  nearly everyone was on one side of the net playing regular volleyball.  Yosef, Daniel, Fisseha, and a friend faced them as soccer-players, serving and returning the volleyball by kicking or heading it. The soccer players defeated the regular volleyball players seven games out of seven. I played for about three minutes until I attempted to return a ball delivered by a brisk soccer-playing kick from Yosef;  I jammed my fingers so badly they hurt for two days.  After the game we rested at the edge of the dunes watching Daniel pursue the volleyball down the beach; he’d kick it high into the wind coming off the waves and then tear after it like a little kid.  We laughed partly because he looked so goofy and partly at the pleasure of seeing Daniel PLAY.  

The kids (and I) played a pell-mell game of Sardines (like Hide-or-Seek but you squeeze in and hide WITH the hiding person) back and forth between two of the houses.  Jesse scrunched into an under-the-sink bathroom cabinet.  Yosef stood flat behind curtains.  


someone is hiding under the sofa cushions


Lily, Helen & Daniel



We all played Charades (in which Helen saved her team by guessing “Francisco Pizzaro” but no one on that team recognized clues for “Twas Brillig and the Slithy Tove…”) and we played a drawing game and board games. Lily won the late-night game of Spades. I made caramel apples.  When no golfers were in sight, the kids ran to the green to throw a football and tackle each other; and, when golfers rounded the bend in a golf-cart, the kids dove for cover on the patio.  There was much wrestling on couches and piggy-back-riding on the beach and splashing in the pool and hot-tub and everyone was completely exhausted every night.  The boys actually put themselves to bed, in the house they shared with Uncle Billy and Aunt Tracy.  It seemed the perfect, perfect Thanksgiving (although, after we’d cooked for most of the day on Thursday and finally set out the banquet, Daniel sat alone in the livingroom looking into the distance.  “What’s wrong?” I asked, and he said, “I no like this food.”)  

How, I wonder, can I replicate such joy at home?  

I think I know. We need to live in two houses—about three doors apart—rather than in one, and we need a beach and a pool and a hot-tub and two golf-carts.  Above all, we need the gregarious cousins and siblings willing to hop onto bikes and golf-carts for wild rides rather than a dreary pair of parents who are constantly telling people to brush their teeth, take out the garbage, and/or  go to bed.


the soccer volleyball game

Lily actually knows how to play volleyball

Lee

Jesse

Daniel

Seth

Fisseha

Molly prefers to cheer from the sidelines

shenanigans on the winning side

Yosef knocks himself down with his own great kick

Lily in the condo

Seth bravely riding with Daniel