Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving: A day in pictures.
After some early morning shopping for me, and a turkey-bowl football game for Tyson, we headed over to his mom's house to see his Aunt Kathy, Uncle Jim, and Grandpa who were visiting from Nebraska. BittyBit spent much of the day making this face. Life sure is hard when you don't get everything you want. :)Here's a picture I took of Terrence before he remembered that someone told him he looks better when he's not smiling. All of the pictures hereafter show Terrence with a look of studied seriousness. After we stopped at Connie's house, Terrence, Tyson, the kids, my dad, and I all headed over to Jenni's house for Thanksgiving dinner. LittleMan wasted no time in trying to grab any food in his reach.LittleMan: "I'm hungry, hey look a turkey leg, that'll do!"
"Fine, I guess I'll settle for this delicious pumpkin bread, since nobody took my hint about the turkey leg."After dinner, Jenni showed off her target from the shooting range. Enlarge it to see how awesome she is.Ashley let BittyBit play with her pink pony. "Look ma, now it's a unicorn."
LittleMan didn't want anything to do with this horse. I think it's because he was trying to protest that he always gets stuck doing the girly stuff. This theory is backed up by the fact that later when I thought he might be warming up to the horse, he got close enough to hug it or climb on, but instead he shoved it over and walked away. That's right, you show that pink horse who's boss.
Like father, like daughter. Ashley was more than happy to share her toys, but she refused to smile for the camera. That's OK, I'm just mean enough that I'll post all of the frowning, scowling, and otherwise uncooperative pictures of my subjects if that's all they give me to work with.
Time out for tickles. LittleMan was so into this he even helped Aunt Jenni out by lifting his shirt for her every time she came at him.I saw my youngest sister Rose for the first time in a few months. Last time her hair was long, now it looks kind of like mine. Sorry guys, I'm not posting the angry badger face pictures here, I have to maintain the pretense that I still have a shred of dignity.
Anne and Rose, aka Fourthborn & LittleBit (not to be confused with my BittyBit - my mom came up with all these names, kind of confusing, but oh well.)A lovely picture of Robyn - after viewing the preview I said to her,"Wow, your expression looks just like mom's in that picture"...Which led to this picture... Followed by several more where her expression changed from surprise, to laughter, to resignation when I showed her the preview. Yes, someday all girls turn into their mothers in one way or another.
LittleMan was just as happy to clean up as he was to eat all of the food in sight. Here he is after single handedly loading all of the dishes and starting a load in the dishwasher. Ok, maybe he just pushed all of the buttons on the dishwasher, but a mother can dream, can't she?
This is maybe the fourth picture that Tyson and I have been in together during the last two years.BittyBit gave up her scowling for a little while and posed with her mom and aunt. She was really fairly pleasant considering this week's schedule has been turned upside down.
Then it was time for a serious game of chase, with BittyBit being running from about 4 grownups at once. Ha ha, you think Grandpa Cary is going to save you?
Jonathon doesn't believe in safe zones, he'll scoop you up and twirl you around no matter who you try to hide behind!

We were all so tired by the end of the day. We brushed the kids' teeth when we arrived home and tossed them in bed. I stumbled off to sleep just after 8:00pm, although I didn't fall asleep until 45 minutes later as I was scouring the newspaper ads for Black Friday sales at the local stores.

What a day! I am so thankful for my family and that I live in a country where I can worship as I choose and while I may not agree with other people around me on some issues, I have the right to express my opinion and vote as I see fit. I really do live in a blessed country and I remind myself every day how much better life is for even the poorest among our country than it is for other people in so many other parts of the world. I'm thankful that I have so many family members close by and that we get to see each other as often as we want. I'm thankful for education and job opportunities and that I have clean water and good food to eat. Life is good.