Thanksgiving

This year we hosted Thanksgiving at our house, which is a pretty rare occasion. I only remember hosting one other Thanksgiving back in 2009. But since we’re moving in less than a week, our relatives graciously agreed to come to us rather than have us travel to them. J My Mom’s side of the family all arrived on Wednesday afternoon in time for dinner.

 

We received a surprise package that day. Our realtor sent us a huge box of specialty popcorn! She said we deserved a medal after enduring all those showings (over 30.) It was so sweet of her!

I was having fun playing peek-a-boo with my cousin J before our spaghetti dinner. Capturing pictures of him is incredibly hard because he moves so fast!

Before prayer that night, we girls sang “In Times Like These” with Rubia on the guitar. Little J was getting so tired, the music calmed him right down. J

Thanksgiving Day dawned bright and sunny; a perfect day for the traditional football game. The little guys had fun playing outside in the morning while some of us watched the Macy’s parade.

Around 11:30 a.m. Daddy arrived home! We were all ecstatic to see him!

If I’ve been doing a good job here on the blog, most of you should be scratching your heads wondering where Dad was. Well, ever since October 8^th he has been living in Texas! He started his new job that day, and we’ve had to live 1,100+ miles apart for the past 7 weeks. He was able to visit once in mid-October, but other than that we haven’t been able to see him. He got up at 2 a.m. to catch a 6 a.m. flight to arrive back here in Michigan for Thanksgiving lunch. We’re VERY thankful that the separation is over now!

 

The table all set for lunch.

We had an ENORMOUS feast for our Thanksgiving lunch around 1:00 p.m. We ate turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes and shrimp pasta salad made by my Abuela, homemade cranberry sauce, herbed corn (recipe coming soon!), green beans, sweet potato casserole, and rolls with butter.

The kids enjoying their Thanksgiving meal.

During lunch we all wrote down things we were thankful for on construction paper leaves. Then we hung them up on our Thanksgiving cross. This has become a favorite family tradition!

For dessert we had pumpkin pie pudding with homemade whipped cream , pecan tassies, and pumpkin spice bars made by my Aunt.

We socialized around the table for a long time after finishing the meal.

Photo Credit: Roma.

Before J, my Aunt, and my Uncle left (he had to work the next day) we took a picture of all the kids. This was the best of the bunch. It’s hard to get everyone looking and smiling at the same time, especially when they’re wired up with sugar! J

Photo Credit: Mark

That evening we mostly relaxed and ate a few leftovers around dinner time. Some of the guys watched football and then the little kids watched a Christmas movie. We skyped with my other Grandpa in Pennsylvania in the evening as well. We all went to bed with full tummies and thankful hearts for all with which God has blessed us!