It's not brain surgery. It's a samosa

*Gobble*Gobble*Gobble*
What a Thanksgiving. It's been awhile since we've had sooo many people crammed into one house. *sigh* the Malvern days, Thanksgiving day lunch with all the family and adopted family = fun times. This year we had 26 people staying with us for our Church convention. It was NUTS. Abs' younger sister came from Montreal! That was definitely THE highlight of the weekend. Then of course our feuding Inuits, celebrity guests and droves of children. I'm not going to lie, it had the potential to turn into a billeting nightmare from hell but thank God it did not! Here's a rundown...

Gus??
Thathi took the day off on Thursday. We found ourselves in Malvern. We seemed to be drawn back to the ghetto almost instinctively. It's a phenomenon. I can't explain it. Somehow we ended up at No Frills of all places. No Frills AND Malvern. Now that's class. Can someone tell me when 'Steve and Brian's No Frills' became 'Gus' No Frills?!'
(Gus and his No Frills)

Inuit Smack Down
*YAY* Debs came on Friday. Luckily we were able to sneak back home after picking her up at the bus station before all the hordes of people came over. Tonite was the nite the fun started. We had a family of 9, they had 7 kids ranging from the ages of 11 months to 9. A bunch of people from Washington two guys from New York (the celebrities, the webmasters of a church-ish website called Blueradius) and the best guests ever. The Inuit ladies. Most of you have heard the story already so i won't bother retelling it to you. For those of you who haven't, here's a scintilating snippet from the end of one of their conversations "I'm not sleeping next to that piece of sh*t." Call me. I'll give you the details ;)
To the scholars who came home for Thanksgiving. I really wanted to call you on Friday night. Honest. I did. I was thinking about you guys all weekend. Guess it'll have to wait for December.

Ollie Got Served
Saturday was crazy. Especially Saturday afternoon. Finally Oliver got a taste of his own freaking medicine! David and Judith's 6 kids "played" with him in the afternoon for like 2 hours. He couldn't take it. You know how normally it doesn't matter WHAT you do to the loser he never gets tired. Now we know. Let him lose with 6 wild children for two hours and he'll be exhausted.
(David and Judith's Clan 'hiding' from Oliver l-r Elizabeth (6), Davey (4), Joey (8), Josh (9.5), Sarah (7), Mercy (3), missing: Caleb (11 months))
(As if they could remain on the ground like that, here they are again (same order))

I had Samosa duty on Saturday. I've come to the conclusion that i can never be in the service industry. People irritate me too much. It's really simple guys. You have two choices, a mild samosa, or a hot one. Pick one. For the love of God. Just pick one and keep walking. Thathi and I had clean up duty at the church. AKA Washing huge massive pots that you could cook children in, but without hot water or good sponges.
(The ladies making Tuna sandwiches l-r Debs, Aunty Lydia, Vindhiya and Pasha)

"Would you like stuffing with that?"
I had Turkey duty on Sunday. It was unpleasent. I was manning the stuffing. Sunday was the last day of the Convention. And i was kind of sad to see it end. I had a lot of fun this year. Mainly because the house was rammed with people and Debs came from Montreal. At the same time having so many people really did suck. Only because one of the (many) things that I look forward to about having strange people come and stay at our house is getting to know them. This was virtually impossible this year. But here are a few things our family managed to collectively glean from random conversations with our guests.

Sis Robin from Washington - Her son has a very uncommon name. They look African American mixed with something else. I don't want to butcher his name but it's really cool. Ammi asked her what it meant. Turns out his name is Polynesian for Charles, his father named him that b/c he himself is Polynesian!

Sis Susan half of the Inuit duo - Susan is the sweetest old lady EVER. She stayed with us one extra day so i got to spend a little time with her. She's 77 years old and man has she been through a LOT. In a nutshell: She was married to an Anglican priest who was sent to the North to establish a church. It took him an entire year to save up enough money to buy sled dogs to make the journey. She and her 12 children went along with him. Only 5 of her kids died, the other 7 died due to the severe weather conditions. Her husband also died early on, some lung ailment, but she continued on. Remember that "Transformations" video that Radford made us watch? The one with the world wide revivals on it? The Inuit community that they filmed, that's Susan's home! And the church that was there is the one that her husband built!
(Susan getting some loving from Oliver)

Sis Pia - She's an official translator! She gets hired by the CBC and stuff to do work from Inuktituk (sp?!) into English and vice versa.

Ben from Yonkers NY - Wants to go to Africa for a year. (Good choice btw ;))

Franklin from Yonkers NY - Was watching his carb intake. Refused an offer to have raisins picked out from his breakfast to lower the carb count. Pure madness.

Bro Andy from Washington DC - LOVED Oliver. But was also afraid of him. They'd play but Andy would get scared and jump away. And do the nervous laugh. The "i'm not scared, but i'm scared" laugh.

Here are some random pictures
Sparky, looking a lot like Anthony Hopkins in promotional posters for the Shining
Debs and Lou reunited again after leaving Vancouver
A present from Sarah on our Magnadoodle
Aiya and Sis Gail representin'...Punchy's just blurry :P

(Remember, if there's a name that doesn't look familiar to you check the brief lexicon :))
That's all for now!