This will be a Thanksgiving I will never forget.
I’ll let the pictures speak..
First Dinner-The home of one of my favorite sisters’ (in law).
Dixie knows how to enjoy some peanut butter! And the toys behind her belong to my 1 year old nephew who was busy socializing with the family.
We used the markers to make hand print turkeys and then write some things we are thankful for or whatever was on our minds. Missing my father (in law) was on everyone’s mind. But, the many happy memories are what we are thankful for.
It’s all about dessert. I saved my hiatus from sugar until Black Friday shopping.
After we said our goodbyes, we got on the road to MS to see my side of the family. It’s not very often that we get to see both families in one holiday. Another thing we are thankful for this year.
We had a lot of good food and fun shopping (34th year of Black Friday shopping), but let me get to the really important part…JACKSON!! My precious sister’s baby boy.
That high chair was mine. It’s 34 years old. He was a little too small for it, but where we come from, we improvise with blankets. This is his expression 90% of the time.
This was after about 10 hours of shopping. Yes, we put reindeer antlers on him just so we could laugh and get pictures for his senior year embarrassment vid. He just laughed with us.
(Deep down, I know he wishes that was an Alabama jacket, but I’m just so very glad it’s not the Big Fat Dumb Orange Team from TN).
She’s been smiling like that since she was his age. I think he has her smile.
Daddy showing everyone Jackson’s Santa Butt.
Now for the rest of the weekend.
I adore Black Friday shopping. I have no idea what encouraged my mother to start doing this but it’s a family tradition that we have kept every year. Last year, we came the closest to having to cancel it. Dad got out of the hospital the day before Thanksgiving. We talked about cancelling the whole thing because someone needed to be with him at home, but he insisted we continue the tradition. We had a very abbreviated shopping trip then. We made up for it this year even with an extra special addition.
Saturday was our family dinner and decorating day.
Furbabies!!
Mom’s little dachshund to keep her company now that the kids are gone.
Warm fire, warm puppy Grandpa and Brownie
Roxie—Jackson’s big sister.
This family dinner was so much fun. As Stephen said, “I felt like we all just belonged together this year”
More food was added..a LOT more food.
Then it was time for the first ever yard decorations. Monica and I are a little jealous that we never had this kind of stuff when we were kids.
Umm….hmmmm…..
Made in China, packaged in Bangladesh, but the instructions are in Spanish!
Brownie checking it out..and I won’t show the pic of what he did next.
How many people does it take to put together a 3 ft snowman?
After all the dishes were done and lights put up, I saw this. Monica and I made this when I was 10 and she was 2. Many years have passed since then along with many heartaches and happy times. But we are family. We are sisters. Best of all, we are friends. I prayed for a baby brother. I got a baby sister. And I’m thankful God knew what he was doing when he gave her to us.
Lee
Tuesday 30th of November 2010
Sounds like a nice holiday.
Katrina
Tuesday 30th of November 2010
It was one of the best. :-)