Being Thankful

Several years ago my side of the family started a new tradition to hold Thanksgiving on a separate day before the big day so that we could all be together while still being available to "the inlaws"on Thanksgiving Day.

We've switched around host-houses, this year was at my sister Amy and her husband Colombo's house.  We joked about needing to rent out a hall for next year.  This year we had 26 people, 12 adults and 14 kids, including 4 in high chairs.  Yes, crazy, but it was a nice day and the kids were outside for most of it.

 My crafty, ambitious sister made the place cards.  Beautiful, aren't they?

 Solving just a few of the world's problems

 Our hostess

 BFFs...two of THE sweetest nine year-olds ANYwhere.

A sampling of the children present.  As I was looking at this I noticed how much of a gap there is getting to be between the older cousins and the younger ones.  Colombo used to blend in but now he's getting so big...still a good sport about having the little ones around though.

I like doing a table shot to see how many people I can get with their mouth full of food. :)

Then we switched gears and did a Q4 birthday party.  My other crafty sister made the cake.  My two sisters kept all the craftiness and athleticism for themselves.

Mom, Amy, Dad, Amanda, Nathanael