Thanksgiving weekend

All of these shoes at the back door can only mean one thing...

all of my boys are home!!!

Tyler came home around 3pm on Tuesday. His girlfriend Maria gave him a ride and it was so nice to sit at our kitchen table with the two of them and chat for a while! Jake rode the Alumni club chartered bus home from school and arrived at home around 2:30am on Wednesday. A 12 hour bus ride! Yikes!

Wednesday was spent getting a lot of errands done, like much needed haircuts for the college boys. :) That night we had a family Christmas movie night and Tyler also got us hooked on the show 'How I Met Your Mother.'

Thursday we watched the parade and went through all of the Black Friday sales while eating some homemade pumpkin bread.

That afternoon we headed over to my parents house where we had Thanksgiving dinner with the crew.

On Friday, we went to cut our Christmas tree down at a local tree farm. We haven't done this is 15 years, so this brought back a ton of memories from when the boys were little... and it was so much fun! (We missed having Tyler and Jake there due to work and a Turkey Bowl.)

(The tree is super prickly so I wore some gloves while I lit the tree. :)

Bella even helped out. :)

1400 lights later and all is lit.

Now to rest a bit. :)

On Saturday we prepared to have our own little turkey dinner. We put in a smaller turkey with some of the fixings.

Then it was time to decorate the Christmas tree.

I love these guys and am so very thankful to be their mom!

Sunday morning came too quickly.

But our house will be alive again in just 3 weeks! :)

(The other title that I had for this post was 'the best weekend ever' which is what I kept telling Pete all weekend as my mama heart was so happy and full!)

Thanksgiving thoughts

We were so blessed to be able to host Thanksgiving again this year.  All the fixings were made {a 21 pound turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes, gravy, sweet potato casserole, rutabagas, green bean casserole, rolls, cranberries, salad, pumpkin pies.}

I am so thankful for these two! And  was sure missing Tyler this Thanksgiving, it was harder than I thought it would be having him so far away on this family holiday.

But we were able to Skype with him, and I think he really enjoyed 'seeing' and chatting with everyone.

The star of the show.  :)

I am so thankful and feel so blessed for the family that was able to join us this Thanksgiving!

And a Thanksgiving would not be complete without these two battling over the wishbone. :)

A dusting of sparkly snow was the perfect way to end the day!

So Thankful!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

giving thanks

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks for all that we have and all that is important to us.

One of the things I was especially thankful for this year was the opportunity to host Thanksgiving dinner for our family.

A little preparation and a lot of help made for a special day and a wonderful meal. I am so thankful for the memories made...

making the pies

~pumpkin and pecan~

and mash potatoes

"What are they??"

rutabagas :)

setting the tables

preparing the turkey

coloring the turkey from the newspaper

Grandma with her little grandsons

a cute new apron

help in the kitchen

football watching

puppy gates

picture taking

a perfect turkey

a proud chef :)

a pretty table

a Thanksgiving feast for my family

bountiful food

and finally a game of Scrabble

and a nap :)

So many blessings and so much to be thankful for!!