Happy Thanksgiving

My dad capturing me, capturing him.

Our kids making the new generation of the "kid's table".

Here's wishing everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! We did and feel thankful for so many things! We had my parents up for the day and my grandmother made her first trip to our house. It was fun entertaining the holiday meal at our house. It was a little odd not having our other family around, both on my side of the family and Skip's side. We had way too much food, as always, and ate way too much! The kids enjoyed their gobble, gobble, wibble, wobble (from a great book about Thanksgiving we have been reading). They thought it was so much fun having their own "kid's table" to sit at. That hadn't even occured to me until just before the meal. We can have a kid's table now!! I was thinking that in just a few years all the cousins can sit there together and it will be a very full table! The next morning we got up early and mom and I hit a few stores and Skip even ventured out for his first Black Friday experience. We were able to find nice, mellow crowds with many helpful people, and purchased a lot of gifts for Christmas and even got the kids's birthdays taken care of!! We are rockin' this year on that, but of course I am trying really hard to prepare ahead of time, not knowing what my next couple of months will look like! After shopping we headed to Union Station and Crown Center (another post). Then, that night we had Emerald's dance (another post). It was a long, busy, exhausting day, and we were all ready to fall into bed at 9:30 after we got home.

As we asked Emerald and Calvin what they were thankful for, here are a few responses we got:

--my family (and listed us all)

--Lobster

--good food

--my cousins (both Josiah and Simon were mentioned)

--our new house

--friends

--Laney

Skip and I add our own list of Thanksgivings:

--our precious children (and the 2 incredible women who helped bring them to us)

--our family who support and help us in so many ways

--our health, something that is quite apparant right now as we continue to pray for Lobster

--our new blessing of Lobster

--our new house and neighbors

--Skip's job, in today's world we are always thankful for that

--our sweet Laney-girl who seems to get quite ignored these days, but who still puts up with so much from our kids

--each other, for our love continues to grow and change into a new kind of love each day

--our wonderful new year in Kansas

--our friends, both near and far

--so many, many other things

We also noted that one year ago this week we were involved in our car accident. We are thankful for having survived that w/o a scratch and that we have remained safe in the year that followed. Happy Thanksgiving!

May you also enjoy as many moments of excitement in the upcoming month as we anticipate. It isn't even December and the ohhhh's and ahhhh's of Christmas lights, Santas, snow, and many other things remind us each day of the continuous "awe" moments of a child. May we all hold that near to our heart in the upcoming Christmas season.