Wild Turkey!

Of our two Thanksgiving feasts

(one at my parents' house and the other at our house),

I only took ONE picture.

One whole picture!!

Drum-roll, please....

This is Nick's turkey that he shot a few weeks ago.

We cut it up, slathered it in butter, seasonings, orange juice, and bacon...

and stuck that sucker in the smoker!

It turned out so beautifully!

But I don't have a finished picture for you.

Because I only took ONE picture, don't forget.

Anyway, the Wild Turkey was fantastic!!

And so was Nick's turkey.

Hahaha!

Just jokes, folks.

Ahem.

We had THE most amazing food and great family surrounding us.

SO BLESSED!

I hope your Thanksgiving Day was wonderful, too!

thanksgivin'

Well, I went ahead and upgraded my picture memory on my blog.

So now I have determined to get my money's worth and

post every single picture I ever take, from this moment on, for the rest of my life.

Here are just a few pics from Thanksgiving.

I am saddened because I forgot to take my camera out of my purse

at my parents' house, and thus failed to capture

the good times at that Thanksgiving celebration.

And there was gambling and everything.

Dang!

NEXT TIME.

I hosted Thanksgiving at our house with K-Man's side of the fam.

And by hosted, I mean that I sat and watched my

mother-in-law do most of the work.

She's awesome.

So here's the pictorial:

Nick and me.

Nick and me again.

Five of the best men I know.
Love them so much!

Nick and his darling girlfriend, Sarah.

The little kids on a Thanksgiving treasure hunt!

Finding the "treasure chest."
(Mama/Auntie Lori is so wonderful!)

My single brother-in-law, Kenny, carving the turkey.

Little Brennan taking his first bite of sweet potatoes

Little Brennan deciding that that would be his last bite of sweet potatoes.

Papa with Isaiah and Brennan.
It was a lovely day out!

K-Man and his wonderful Mama.

Kenny, me, and my chins (in the most unflattering pose ever).

Well, that's about it.

gobble, gobble

I have a few more pics I could post, but my internet is being...
*sigh*...difficult.
Which is way too common around here.

Anyway,
we had a very lovely Thanksgiving.

The weather was F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S.
Oh my.

So, here are some pics...

Please tell me you LOVE our new family photo!
:)
I was determined to get a good pic when B was home because
the only other one we have, isn't so great.

Love.

Love, love, love.

Thanks to B's friend, Nate, who knows how to work my camera
way better than I can!



I am soooooo happy to have Brenden home!
He is such a joy!!
And as I type this, two more of his friends are on their way
to our house!

I love my kids!
And all their friends!

So, I sure hope you all have an exquisite Thanksgiving too.




We all have SO MUCH to give thanks for.

thanksgiving sunday

We put up our Christmas tree yesterday.
Rather, I should say that Nick and Macy put it up.

It's way earlier than I care for.
But since Brenden loves Christmas so much and he's going
to be home tomorrow for Thanksgiving,
I thought it would be nice.
Want to be my golden child?
Move away, then come back, then go away again.

Anyway,
for whatever reason I thought it would be fun to put the tree in
our school room.
Regret started filling my heart early-on.
But I need to keep that to myself,
lest I will be dragging the thing, lights, ornaments, and all,
to the living room,
all by myself.

So. It stays, I reckon.

Macy is sort of like Wilson from Home Improvement...

But this photographer doesn't give up.

Nick worked extra hard.
He loves him some Christmas too.

Mother, enough.

Half-way through our decorating efforts,
we went to my parents' house for our family T-day dinner.

And since my sisters and I all moonlight as
supermodels, we figured we should take a few photos.
Of just us.
Because that's just the sort of thing we do.

Umm, I really have no words.
But suffice it to say,
don't even try to mimic the pouty face.
It takes special training.
It will be in all the fashion magazines soon.
Really, it will.

Cutest girls around.
We think so anyway.

Back to the decorating.

And Isaiah no longer will pose as a normal person.

He insists on being a dinosaur.

A scary dinosaur.

Be very, very afraid.

Come on, Lucy.
We're outta here.

Have a super duper Monday!

tree-putting-up attitude

We thought that Lucy was on the mend so we went ahead
with our Thanksgiving plans yesterday.

We had no suspicion that this darling little diva
with her MTM flip would be
horribly sick all.night.long (again) last night.

Poor little cupcake!
She had a 104+ fever that we thought would never break.
Thankfully, she finally got some rest and felt
perky and energetic by morning.

How in the world can kids bounce back so fast?
God's mercy on the parents, I reckon.

Anyway,
I'm grateful she's better (short of a hacking cough),
and hope she sleeps well tonight.

Please, oh please.



But back to our Thanksgiving day...

Had a scrumptious meal.

Then played a vicious game of Pictionary.
And by vicious I mean,
the boys' team was relentless (and most like cheated) in their
quest to win.
The girls, on the other hand, had higher standards.
And truth be told, horrible drawing skills.
That would be my fault.

Thanks for all your comments yesterday.
I was so relieved to know that so many of you are as
repulsed by green bean casserole as me.

And if you must know,
I DID go out this afternoon for some shopping.
It was fun.

And perhaps we'll put up our Christmas tree tomorrow.
Or perhaps not.

I love/hate it.

Why can't it all just miraculously appear?
And disappear?

How about you.
What's your tree-putting-up attitude?

Be honest.
Is it truly fun or do you kinda not like the process so much?

Careful, anyone admitting to love it may just win the opportunity
to come decorate my house for me.

Just kidding.

Maybe.

thanksgiving

Hello, my pilgrim friends!

I hope your Thanksgiving is starting out with a bang.

I know mine has.

*Trying, trying, trying to be thankful*

Lu-bug has a flu-bug (or something) and got up at 5 AM.
Sweet, isn't she?
It's all good though because
I was really hoping to see the sun rise this morning anyway.
(sarcasm font)
Perhaps that will happen soon.

We had a lovely T-giving dinner at my parents' house last night.
It was good but after we left I realized
I had forgotten to have pie.

Who forgets to eat pie?

Today we are off to my in-laws' house.
Much smaller crowd at this gathering.
Hopefully Lucy will feel like going.



Let me leave you with a snid-bit about me.
I know you were hoping for something.
I've never ever eaten that green bean casserole stuff.

I just can't imagine what the big deal is about
mushy veggies in sodium soup.

Oh and I'm very anti-Black Friday.
OK, not really.
I just don't get why anyone would get up while it's still dark
(as I sit here in the dark)
to go shopping.
Perhaps I'll venture out Friday afternoon,
the way our forefathers
intended.
So, for the seven of you who might be reading this,
tell me...

Do you like green bean casserole and
are you a crazy-get-up-at-an-obscene-hour
Black Friday shopper?



UPDATE:
7:18 AM
Look what I just found on the couch.
(Now that I'm wide awake)

giving thanks

Since Macy is still so new to our family,
and to America,
we decided it would be best to just celebrate
Thanksgiving without extended family.
Macy still gets overwhelmed
around lots of people and because both sides
of our family are so loud expressively fun,
we opted for a quiet(er) holiday with just the 6 of us.

And because food continues to be a HUGE issue,
we thought it would be good to kick
off the holiday with a big Chinese dinner on
Wednesday night.
*Mike & Angela, THANK YOU for the gift card!!

As you can see,
the kids were eager to get their
pictures taken.
I'm not exactly sure what Brenden is doing. But I assure you,
the food was fabulous.

I asked Macy if she knew that Mama
was a supermodel.
She giggled.
Not sure why that was so funny.
But here I am showing her how to pose.

Brenden showed a little of his
supermodel moves too.
Or should I say, superhero?

Now you're getting the idea!
Good job.

And we all know that this
little diva knows how to work a camera.

******************************
Fast forward to Thursday....
Thanksgiving.

I made all the traditional Thanksgiving fixins'.

And if you don't mind,
please pause to admire my cherry pie.
And do note that it is made from
FRESH cherries.
Cherries that I spent an HOUR pitting!
I said, "NEVER AGAIN" until my sweet husband
told me how incredible fabulous it was.
Well honey, maybe for you I will make another
one some day.

Oh and yes, doesn't the bread look deee-licious!?

Finishing up our meal.

Don't Wally and Beaver look so
prim and proper?

Then we began the much anticipated Christmas decorating.

Brenden wanted to put the tree up in mid-October
but I held him off until today.

Almost everyone was in on the action...

Macy took her job of making sure the branches
were just right, very seriously.

And here is Nick helping.

And Miss Pose-a-lot with the finished tree.

Two years ago we celebrated Thanksgiving in the waiting
mode for our NSN Chinese baby girl....
Never in a million years would I have guessed that
24 short months later, we would have
two Chinese daughters!

Wow, what a blessing.

I sure am THANKFUL!!