Second Thanksgiving

Christmas arrived a few weeks early! 

Chad and Laura hosted the annual Second Thanksgiving – a celebration of the holidays and surviving yet another year as an orthopaedic family.  It’s tough to gather all twenty of our residents plus their spouses and families for a single gathering, but baring any unforseen circumstances, nearly everyone marks this date on their calendar.

Laura goes above and beyond to make the party a complete success.  From a beautifully decorated home, to an incredible spread of food, a video presentation and photo booth, party favors, and  a gingerbread house competition – everything is perfect!

The photo booth was a new addition this year and we certainly had fun capturing the perfect picture.  Well, at least the girls did.  Trying to corral the boys into a single picture, on the other hand, was a difficult feat. 

This is a food blog, so let’s discuss the eats.  Laura insists on making everything herself, only borrowing other’s kitchens for extra cooking space.  Check out the menu!

Three dining tables were required to seat the crew and provide space for the dishes.  Note the formal place settings, including china.  Stunning!

I opted for a scoop of most everything, and my favorites were the Sweet Potato Granola Casserole and Poppy Seed Fruit Salad.

Family portrait time!  

We were all instructed to wear jeans and either a white or black top for optimal pictures.

Who says orthopaedic residents can’t have fun?  

We’ve had our wine and dinner, time to break into the chocolate fountain!

After all of the children had been fed, we were gathered around for the video presentation.  Thanks to some ridiculous personalized JibJab videos and creative story telling, we found ourselves laughing and reminiscing over the previous year.

Time for the main event – gingerbread houses.  Each of us brought assigned toppings, that when combined, created giant sugar mountains on each table.  After being instructed on the rules of competition, we got busy.

After an hour of very focused work and surgeon-like skills, the results were revealed and judging commenced.  I partnered with Chad to create a hospital scene, complete with a helicopter, ambulance, operating room scene, and a drunk motorcyclist with a bloodied leg (first picture).  What can I say, you just can’t take the doctor out of us.  We took second place – being outdone by a stripper club.  Classy.

By the end of the evening, we were having a bit too much fun, 

and next thing I knew icing was on my face and not on the house. 

We all admired our colleagues work before scooping up the plastic sheets 

and putting all of our artwork in the garbage can.

What a fantastic night!  Due to work schedules and travel, we may not all get to spend the holidays with our families.  Fortunately, we have an incredible “second” family to surround ourselves with and enjoy moments such as these.  99% of the time we work incredibly hard and focus only on orthopaedics, but tonight we were real people enjoying fun times and celebrating the holidays with friends and “family”.  Life is good!