Thanksgiving....

I love this time of year. I am very, very thankful for all of my blessings. We always look forward to having our grandchildren to visit and their parents, of course. This year Jeffrey and his daughter, Kaylee, were here. Derrick, Jen, and their children, Rachael, Megan, and Ethan were here as well. This year we also had Neal's brother, Bronner, his wife Jessica, and their son, Blake with us. Bronner and Jessica are preparing to move here and it is really exciting. We all did lots of visiting, playing cards, watching movies, and playing the Wii, it was great fun. I was able to have great talks with my grandaughters and watch my grandson tease his dad, my son. Neal cooked a great deal of our dinner this year. He has become really interested in cooking shows this past year and trying new things. I have cooked for over 30 years and am down right ecstatic to have someone else take over the kitchen. We were able to have a cam conversation with Melissa, Morgan, Manhattan, Marin, and Maxwell. We got to see Maxwell wiggling in his parents arms for the first time. We tried calling Michael and his family but they were off having dinner with Esther's parents. We talked to them later. There was a Thanksgiving a few years ago where we had 17 adults and 5 dogs in attendance. It was the craziest Thanksgiving ever.

Food was spilt, a plant was dug into by acouple of 2 year olds with dirt all over, several dog accidents happened around the house, the turkey was not quite done, Neal was in bed sick, I was the cook, and at one point Melissa called from Ohio and I was actually sitting in my walk in closet, crying. It is a long and somewhat funny story now, but needless to say, every year since we rate our holiday against the one where I was in the closet. This year I was out of the closet and having a wonderful time. Life is good, I am very thankful for my family, here and faraway, as well as my friends. May we all spend this next year enjoying our life and not sitting in a closet. Love to you all, Laura :-)