thanksgiving w/ my family

thanksgiving was with "my family" this year, as we are in the habit of trading off on thanksgiving and christmas. we are together and celebrate both holidays, but it just depends on what day and time that we're together. last year, we had dinner w/ jerry's family in nevada and then left from there to go to kansas city. this year, we were hosting dinner at our house . . . except that with my back problems and physical therapy -- i was just too miserable to have everyone at my house, so dinner was served at my mother's house. we still did most of the cooking, but just ate and hung out at my mother's house at the farm.

holidays with my family are usually loud and rowdy, but everyone has a real laid-back routine. we eat, we talk, we play games, we eat, we nap, we play games, we laugh, we joke, we make fun of each other and other people, we eat some more, we laugh, we have a great time.

so far, this year has been no exception. we had a great dinner, talked and laughed, raven rode the motorcycle, riahna played on the floor and napped -- fairly typical, except for a couple a new guests this year. summer brought her friend ina, from russia, who was very quiet and seemed fairly overwhelmed by so many talkative and curious people. we invited jacob and the boys to join us, as amanda was getting ready to have company at their house in the late afternoon. i'm sure that gave her a nice break to have the little ones up and out of the way while she was getting ready for dinner.


above is 1/2 of the family room at my mother's house, showing everyone here except for stormy, riahna, jerry, me b/c i'm behind the camera, and my mother (who is no doubt dithering about something in the kitchen). summer is hidden behind galen's head.


jacob is taking a dose of good-natured razzing here, it looks like. joey was quite interested in that spray bottle of hair spray of raven's and the turning coffee table. enough to keep a kid entertained all day!


here's jerry, who was on the other side of the 1/2 circle pictured above. joey had been over to get some hugs and kisses from "gra-pa" as he explored this new place and the people/toys there.


stormy had a good hold on riahna, who really needed a nap but was determined now to take one. she has now reached the point of fighting naps by singing until her little tired eyes close anyway and then she kicks her feet to keep herself awake. to get her to take a nap now, a person has to hold her where she can't kick her feet!



just a picture of summer, since she wasn't shown in the previous group picture. she and lucas were getting ready to head out for kansas city and a football game and we were going to come up later w/ the girls and meet up at the hotel. it made for a long day, but was lots of fun.

another year, another thanksgiving, another round of things to be thankful for. we have been very blessed and we are truly grateful for what we have and who we have.