Thanksgiving

We've had the good fortune to spend the last three Thanksgivings with my cousins who live near Belfast. This year was a little smaller than the last two--Levi and Raquel, of course, are back out west; my other cousin was getting together with his wife's family; my aunt and other cousin were going to come down, but Wednesday brought a storm, and on Thursday morning they just didn't feel comfortable with the roads. So it ended up being just our two families. It was small, but I must admit, it was certainly relaxed--at least for us. I don't know how the hosts felt!

Finn and Madie watch some PBSKids with their cousins Lottie and Pip.

Pip got hurt somehow and went right over to Lottie to snuggle on the couch.

Finn is into this.

Finn is thankful for his blankie, gifted by Aunt Holly, and his fingers, gifted by God.

Madie says she is thankful for her new Elsa book--she bought it at Target a couple weeks ago and has been loving it. She is going to a friend's birthday party this Saturday and when we walked into Sherman's to look for a gift on Saturday they had a FROZEN book display in front. She picked one like hers so her friend can have one too.

Funny story: I love squash and stuffing. As much as I love cranberry sauce and turkey, I love squash and stuffing even more. Squash is my absolute favorite vegetable. Even as a little kid I remember loving squash. And stuffing, I mean, c'mon, right?

Well. You remember the aunt I mentioned up there who was supposed to come and ended up not coming?

Now guess who was supposed to bring the squash and the stuffing.

We were literally half-way to my cousins house when I said, "Mike! There's not going to be any squash!" Aaaaand three minutes later: "And the stuffing!" 

Yeah, that story's a lot more sad than funny.

Thankfully my cousins pulled through with some they had at home. Hallelujah. You can guess what I'm thankful for.

I'm also thankful for bacon. This helped me cope with the stress of thinking we'd have no squash.

Ya know what else I'm thankful for? These two. Ashleigh and John are really great. I am so glad we live kind of close to them. We don't get together a whole ton, but I always enjoy their company. In the absence of my siblings, I've really come to see John and Ash as a brother and sister. To me, obviously, not each other. 

I'm helping John here...not just vulturing the bacon.

And we'll just say this is what Mike's thankful for right here:

Nice action shot, honey.

Just kidding! I mean, I'm sure he is, but he says he's "thankful we have a healthy, happy family." Amen.