Thanksgiving

There's been a whole lot of radio silence in these here parts, why, you ask?  Well, we decided to take a nine day road-trip through Kansas, ending in Wichita to spend time with my family for Thanksgiving.  It was wonderful, loud, and exhausting.  Actually, I admit that I feel surprisingly better than I thought I would at this point (we just did our 8ish hour drive home today) ... but I have a feeling it will sink in when people start arriving for the Jesse Tree ornament exchange tomorrow.

The trip really was wonderful, though.  We stopped at our alma mater to visit with some friends and soak in a little nostalgia (though, really, alma mater, why were you decorated for Christmas before Thanksgiving?!  Boo!)  I got to see (and photograph, an added bonus!) some college friends of ours that lived out in DC until this year (meaning, Daniel saw them every year at a conference he goes to, but I hadn't seen them since our wedding and certainly hadn't met their darling twin boys!)   We also did a quick jaunt through the campus (oh, my, was it cold) and made sure to stop off at the grotto where Anni got very excited about the St. Bernadette statue (though she did wish that they had alllll the Saints).

Then came the insanity of my family all in one place!  There are 22 of us, including our brother's beautiful, sweet, fiance.  She is wonderful!

An entire beautiful meal was organized, made and eaten, even with one of our primary organizers off her feet with a very bruised and swollen foot (who knew that accidentally kicking a dresser could really slow you down?) 

The turkey was carved, places were set, the cousins antagonized each other... No, really.  Especially our Anni and her cousin who just happens to be about six weeks older than her.  At one point, before dinner even started, they got in a tussle over the completely imaginary food Anni was pretending to eat and spilled a drink.  Later, her cousin informed her there was no talking at the table, so, of course, she started singing "talking at the table, talking at the table".  Ah... good thing they love each other so much, too!

One of my brother-in-law's is part native american, so his girls all wore feathers in their hair to celebrate their heritage. 

We stayed with my sister on their homestead most of the week, which was truly wonderful.  Anni got to play with her cousins every minute we were there, I got to follow my big sister around (oh, how I already miss getting to spend so much time with her!), and I finally got an in-person introduction to their chickens.  There is not much that is better than a fresh egg!

Colette kept claiming that she was terrified of her godfather, but then, as he took a nap in the middle of the living room one day, she slowly worked herself up to sit between his feet.  She was quite pleased with herself!

We also got to celebrate my big brother's 30th birthday the day before we left!  I have been trucking away at the big ole project of putting together a book full of photos from his first 30 years, so I was grateful to have the book printed and in his hands. 

I shouldn't forget to mention... we took a big family photo!  Every time we are all together, I try to set the tripod up and capture as we grow.  This year we added two babies and a fiance!  You can see last year's here and the year before here.  We actually managed the photo without too much pain this year.  We did it first thing (before babies and adults had had a chance to melt down) and I tried not to be too picky.  Anni's not looking?  Oh, well, she's there!

 

 

I hope you all had beautiful thanksgivings and that your advents are off to a wonderful start!