Thanksgiving Looks Like

We spent the entire month filling up this wall with all of our blessings!

The list included everything that popped into our minds, from sunshine and clothes to friends and family, animals, school, happy moments, inside jokes and more. It was quite a work of art by the time Thanksgiving came.

The day before Thanksgiving is Pie Day!  

The day before Thanksgiving means everyone is helping in the kitchen. 

And boy were they all great helpers!  We cooked up all kinds of delicious foods for our Thanksgiving feast. 

And we were even joined by Little Leah

and Laney's best friend Lucky. 

Noah was up bright and early Thanksgiving morning- he was so excited to do the "activities that we always do at the counter" (all a good tradition takes is one year of doing it and one year of remembering it!) 

Mashed potatoes for breakfast? Anything goes- it's Thanksgiving!

Oh, the pups were hopeful all day long that a morsel would land their way. 

We had brunch with the Gettings- it's tradition!- and received the awful news that they are moving to South Carolina!  We always knew they were headed south eventually but this sad day has arrived about four years earlier than we were expecting. We are already planning a visit!

And for dinner we hosted the Parodi's!  They have never had a traditional American Thanksgiving feast, so we made sure we had all of the classics on the table.  Including chocolate turkeys, of which each of the kids commented on it's small size.  I told them they could enjoy this small piece of chocolate now and a Mickey bar at Disney World in just a few more weeks!

It was very cold for Thanksigiving this year, so no outside turkey tag or football, but we did enjoy beautiful sunlight streaming in as we feasted.

We even did that silly thing where you place the full bird (I could only find a 16-pounder) on the table, 

and then immediately set to the work of carving it while the rest of the food goes cold.... I'm glad we don't honor that tradition every year. 

But we did enjoy sharing what we're thankful for while Jason carved.  Among the sweetest sentiments shared were good neighbors, every day that we have to live, good food, happy family, Jesus Christ and our warm and happy homes. 

We played games and enjoyed a lot of dessert- the Parodi's brought flan and the most delicious dulce de leche alfajores fresh from Argentina- Diego just flew in on Thanksgiving morning and we were glad their whole family could be with us!  We are very blessed to have such kind neighbors. 

And once they went home, the crazy that we'd all been holding in all day came out.  There was sock throwing and underwear wielding and a whole lot of chasing. 

Before we settled in to watch White Christmas- Leah and Emma insisted, because it's tradition! 

Even though some of us were really, really tired. 

I think 50% of us actually watched the entire movie, but we all woke up when it was over because the end of Thanksgiving Day means the beginning of the most wonderful time of the year- Christmas!! We also hosted a variety of friends during the day and the missionaries for a Leftovers Feast on Friday, but decorating started on Saturday!