19 Kids & Counting: Josiah's Future, Anna's Thanksgiving

The episode wants to bank itself on Josiah's graduation party, but it has surprisingly little coverage in comparison to Josh and Anna preparing for the rest of the family coming to visit for an early Thanksgiving. And even that was really only a lead-up for the next episode, making this installment a bit of a dragging disappointment. Josh tries to renovate a room in a day while Anna has to whip up a holiday meal for 25 people. The whole situation made me wonder if Jim Bob purposely didn't call ahead and tell his eldest the change in travel arrangements, or if the producers wanted to see what they could milk out of the scenario. Regardless, I'm interested to see how the dinner goes over, and where everyone will sit! 

19 Kids & Counting "Graduation & a Surprise!" (S08E05): Josiah celebrates his high school graduation just a few days after the family returns from Erin Bates's wedding. Josiah sent out 300 invitations, and 400 people showed up. [but we don't see any of the "expected" families.] Ben's whole family attends, as do Derick's mom and stepfather, who drop off a care package for Jill and Jim Bob to take to Nepal. In January, Josiah will be going to the ALERT Academy, just like Joseph. [semi-expected.]

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After the party, the Duggars head to Josh & Anna's, so she takes on the huge challenge of making a holiday meal... when she hasn't made a turkey before. [that also didn't look like a big enough turkey!] To make more space for everyone at the house, Anna suggests Josh clean out the downstairs bedroom and paint it... but they don't have a lot of time. [exactly where are they putting all of the stuff that was "in storage" down there?] They think they have a day and a half, so Josh has a family friend come over to assist, but it turns out that the family drove through the night to beat some bad weather, and will arrive 19 hours ahead of schedule! [when did they buy the bunk bed? Anna made a turkey, 6 casseroles, 16 ears of corn, 3 pies, and 24 rolls. scraping by in a few of those areas, no?]