Thanksgiving

We spent a wonderful Thanksgiving with my family this year.  What a blessing it is to be part of such a large family who truly enjoys getting together.  (And, if you ask my husband, we come up with any excuse to have a family reunion!)

Wednesday evening we drove to my parents' house to spend the night.  My sisters, my mom, my aunt Sheri, and I had our first annual Girls' Night Out while the guys watched the two babies.  It was SO wonderful to have a night out without the kids.  We went to Olive Garden and all ordered soup, salad, and bread sticks - YUM!  We had a super sweet waitress from Jamaica - wish I had gotten a picture of her, but I was too busy laughing as she told us stories and joked around with us.  She did take a picture of us though, so we could document it (or, rather, so I could blog about it ;).

That night, Ted and I didn't get much sleep, because our Sweet Pea decided she was not too happy to be sleeping in a different place.  We ended up having her in bed with us, but it took us until 1:30 am to finally settle her down.  Thankfully, our Little Pumpkin only woke up once in the middle of the night and didn't seem to be bothered by his big sister's screaming one bit.

Thursday morning, Ted and my brother, DJ, got all geared up for the Turkey Trot.  I decided to stay in the warmth of my parent's house, but my mom braved the cold and took some pictures for me.

We then enjoyed a delicious brunch with my parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, and Uncle James' family.  All the food was prepared the night before, so it was really easy to get it ready in the morning.

In the afternoon, my family enjoyed watching the Packers beat the Lions in the annual Turkey Bowl while our little family of four took a much needed nap.

Finally, we headed to my grandparents' home for dinner with my dad's family.  All but one of my dad's seven siblings were there with most of their families, so we had quite the crowd - it took FIVE tables to seat us all for dinner!  My grandpa led us in a Thanksgiving prayer, thanking everyone for all their support after his heart attack and thanking God for protecting and healing him - there were many teary eyes, because we came so close to losing him.  It made me SO thankful for the wonderful family God has blessed me with - you can ALWAYS count on them to be there in your time of need.

Of course, everyone enjoyed meeting our Little Pumpkin and our Sweet Pea enjoyed her share of attention.  I didn't see her much the whole evening, because she was entertaining everyone!

One of the best memories of the evening was listening to all my aunts, my dad, and my grandpa singing around the piano.  It reminded me of Christmases long ago when everyone lived close by and would fill my grandparents' home year after year with laughter and singing.  All of my dad's family were blessed with beautiful singing voices and they always sing in sweet harmony - it was the most beautiful sound!

I hope you and your family enjoyed a blessed Thanksgiving too!