Thankful??? You Bet!

My favorite season has officially started... the "Holidays"! It started this week with Thanksgiving. As a child I wasn't a fan of Thanksgiving. Too much food, too much "grown up talk", and me always at the kid's table (if I made it there at all. I do happen to recall a Thanksgiving with my cousin Cheryl and I sitting at TV trays in the hallway). It was also the day my parents seemed determined to make me eat new things... things that they, themselves, had tried and hated, like spinach and squash and peas.

As an adult I have a new appreciation for the holiday. I have so much to be thankful for! I think this became overwhelmingly apparent to me when I became a mom. Maybe even more as I see how much sadness there is out there. I look at my wonderful husband and beautiful children and feel so grateful it takes my breath away. My family of origin is terrific. My mom and brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, and my grandmother are such pillars in my life. I am also tremedously lucky to have married into a family that treats me like I was born into it. We are healthy, for the most part, and safe. To have so many people to love and be loved by is truly a blessing. Although this is something I wish we could express more often, I feel that this time of year gives us lots of opportunities to show people how much we care.

Here is my daughter posing in her holiday best. Such a ham! People kept saying "Don't you look pretty!" to Chelsea. She replied with an honest (and not-so-modest) "YES!"

Our Thanksgiving started at my mother-in-law's house. It took my kids 3 minutes to take out the toys and trash the place. But did they complain about the mess? Nope! They were just happy to have us there.

Then it was on to eat at my mom's house. It was her first year hosting the Thanksgiving feast. My grandmother moved into a retirement complex and passed the torch to my mom. At first I worried that Gee (my grandmother) would be lost without the hustle and bustle of hosting the meal, but she seemed fairly relaxed and happy to actually sit and eat with the rest of us. It went off without a hitch.

My brother hangs out with Travis and my cousin. The little boys were rambunctious at times. They had a great time.

My grandmother celebrated her eighty-first birthday this year. Her birthday is so close to Thanksgiving that we usually celebrate it on the holiday. I consider myself very fortunate to be a part of such a close knit family. With 4 daughters, ten grandchildren and 3 (soon to be 4) great-grandchildren, I am sure my grandmother feels blessed, as well.

Here is Travis in his "rock star" pose. I think he gets this side of his personality from his father, who has always semi-secretly wanted to be in a hairband (or is it boyband). This looks a lot like John when he is trying to channel his inner-rocker!