Thanksgiving 2013

We have so much to be thankful for this year. I believe God balanced out the chaos of having three children in four years by blessing us with extremely sweet and thoughtful kids. (And having 4 grandparents who live less than 10 miles away doesn't hurt either...especially when they pretend to enjoy listening to the same Eric Clapton song on repeat, holding crying babies, and tolerate being bonked in the head with plastic teddy bears).

I think its best to describe this year's Thanksgiving celebration as "a moveable feast." I found the actual novel to be emotionally intense, but the phrase captures our non-stop-eat-while-you-can---hold-a-baby-when-you-can type of Thanksgiving. In fact, it wasn't until some point Thursday morning I realized I was actually hosting. I enjoy a little challenge so it was fun to gather things around the house that make me happy and use them to decorate the house.

I believe what has just occurred is consuming a big bite of cranberry sauce...

I used our place cards as note cards for each member of the family to record his/her gratitude for our gratitude jar! I enjoy watching the jar slowly fill up and it serves as a permanent reminder of all our blessings.  Abe and Jeanie had to go to bed prior to our annual viewing of Christmas Vacation (and its difficult to get pictures of them because I am either holding them or Jeanie is on the move!) She is such a great big sister!

 

We also enjoyed Van's Thanksgiving Day celebration at school. He did such a great job singing about turkeys!

 

I am beyond grateful for our one-month-old baby boy Abe. Recently he has started to smile, attended his first Tarheel football game, and helped Van do some cooking. He is also sleeping a 4-5 hour stretch at night which is much appreciated!

 

I love Thanksgiving! Its wonderful to have an entire day devoted to appreciating health, food, family, friends, and love.

 

Now to find a Christmas tree...

:)