Just the kind of holiday I was hoping for...

Another Thanksgiving Day has come and gone. We spent the day itself with most of Mark’s family at his sister’s house. Not surprisingly, we ate too much. There were a few highlights to the day. I got to hold and play with the newest member of the family, our great-nephew, Mitch. I enjoyed an apple cider and bourbon drink before dinner and a slice of chocolate pecan pie afterwards. And as the festivities ended, big, sticky, wet snowflakes flurried down from the sky. I still have this sweet picture in my mind of Mitch in his mommy’s arms as she stood on the back porch. He gazed out into the world, watching in wonder as he witnessed his very first snowfall.

Later on back at home, Heather paged through the day’s newspaper and pulled out the sale ads. I heard her teasingly ask Brad if he wanted to go shopping at Target when they opened up at 9:00 pm. Brad’s not interested in shopping any day, much less willing to battle crazed bargain hunters on Thanksgiving night. But after Heather continued to tease him about taking her shopping, I got the sense that she really wanted to go. And when I asked her if she was serious, she admitted that she and her mom and sister always do the crazy Black Friday shopping thing. I felt bad that Heather was not only missing her own family, but sacrificing a family tradition to be with us. I contemplated volunteering for the excursion. There’s a Target store practically out my back door, so I asked if she wanted me with her. She was thrilled!  I’ve never done this kind of shopping before and can I just say? … Holy Schnikeys!  If I ever do that again, I’m wearing combat boots. Some lady rammed me in the heels with her shopping cart. For what, I’m not sure but I hope it was worth it. But Heather got the things she was looking for, so it was worth it in my book. Definitely an adventure!

The rest of the weekend was much more relaxing. I slept in each day. I think the chest cold that set in on Friday morning contributed to that habit. Kacey, Heather and I did a little more shopping. We cooked dinners and ate late and watched movies in the living room to which I fell asleep. On Saturday, we put the Christmas tree up. The kids had such fun decorating it. They’ve each got a big box full of ornaments given to them each year by various relatives. There’s no room on the tree for all of them. With each ornament that was pulled from the boxes, there was a memory to accompany it. They were being silly together and it was so good to listen to their laughter.

My only real goal for the weekend was to get a picture of all of us together. As the kids have grown up, it’s a rare occasion when we’re all together. I told the kids that I didn’t really care how they were dressed as long as they were neat and clean. While we waited for Mark to come home from work on Saturday night, Heather asked for a picture of her, Brad and Dacotah.

Brad, Dacotah and Heather

So then, Connor decided that he should have a similar photo with his dog and girlfriend.

Connor, Bella and Kacey

And then we still had some time to kill, so I made the boys pose with their dogs.

Connor & Bella, Brad & Dacotah, Jake and Lucy

And then we realized that before Mark got home from work, we should probably figure out where we had room to take a picture of seven people in this little house. Kacey thought it might be cool to get one of all of us sitting on the half flight of stairs. It quickly became obvious there was no way seven adults were going to fit in this space. So someone called out, “Roller Coaster!”  And … yeah …

Jake seems to have missed the Roller Coaster memo…

But in the end, we did manage to get a picture of all of us together.

Kacey, Connor, Mark, Jake, me, Brad, Heather

Which was nice, since no one could manage to behave themselves for long.

Oh well! If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!

Oh, yeah! There’s one for the Christmas card!

Obviously, we had fun. It was exactly what I was hoping for this Thanksgiving holiday!

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