happy thanksgiving!

today was pretty full. not full of scheduled things, really, just full of good stuff. we had the best time this morning, just being home and being together and just doing whatever. i did have to set my alarm for this morning so i could get up and get busy with cooking, but it wasn't too early and things got done at a leisurely pace which was nice. max was up next. i told him happy thanksgiving and that i'm thankful for him and he said "we forgot to make a turkey!!!"explanation...when we lived in columbus, our friend judy gave us a construction paper turkey and a bunch of paper feathers. we were supposed to write something on the feathers every day leading up to thanksgiving - something that we were thankful for. blake and luke were just tiny boys when we started that, probably about 2 and 3 years old. back then they were thankful for things like mama and daddy, mac and cheese...you know, the big stuff! anyway, we have done it every year since then. and even though blake and luke are teenagers now, all of the boys still do it and don't mind it. it's just what we do. so today i put max in charge of making the turkey. i helped him a little bit but he did most of it and he did a good job. here they are before we wrote any of our thankful things. so far this year it says things like pillows, guitars, mints, money, each other, and the eagles (as in philadelphia). and i notice that mama and daddy still earned a feather, too. max came in the kitchen when i was getting the turkey ready for roasting. he was pretty shocked to see the neck when i pulled it out of there. SO funny. we had him re-enact it so we could get a picture. blake made cranberry relish from aunt anna lee's recipe. that's his job every year. greg helped cook a little and helped even more by cleaning up. and that's no small job because i can make a mess. during all of the cooking, we got to stay in our pj's and listen to Christmas music and watch the macy's parade and drink coffee and all that fun stuff. and luke got to sleep. a lot. he was feeling kind of weird last night when he went to bed so we just let him get as much rest this morning as he could. it was hard for us though. kind of like when your kids are babies and they finally sleep through the night and you get a little freaked out and run in to see if they're still breathing. we weren't freaked out but greg and i both ended up going in to check on him. he didn't get up til 10:30! he felt rested and much better than last night. we finally had to get out of our pj's and get cleaned up so we could get over to my mom and dad's for our meal with our blake family. everyone was there today, which was so great! we really are only ALL there once or twice a year so it's always a time we treasure. i took a squillion pictures so i'm not sure what the best way is to put them on here. they won't all make it...oh well.

blake and his nanny. why is he taller than her?









dad carving the turkey. when i told him we were ready to eat except for him and his turkey carving duties, he asked if he was supposed to do it in case he died before next year and couldn't do it anymore. he's goofy.






drew and susan. i think he must miss his mom because he sure was snuggly with her today.








megan's boyfriend jon had his first thanksgiving experience with us and his first time to be in a confined space with our entire family. it went pretty ok. at least i think it did. but i'm not the new guy, though.






scott and michele. i think that's a really good picture of them.









rachel and stephen... rachel's going to be a doctor. i'm not sure about stephen. right now he's a professional green bean and dinner roll eater.







susan said i needed this picture of dad, drew and max. she called them the 3 amigos. or was it stooges? did i say that?

















hannah had a new game to play, and luke was a good big cousin and played it with her. she had lots of "pony rides", courtesy of her cousins. she kept saying, "raise your hand if you want to be a pony!!!" i made sure not to even look like i might be raising my hand. my pony days are over. at least til the grandbabies start coming. and only if i can still get down on the floor and back up again at that point.

here's miss ginny. i think i talked more with this sweet girl tonight than i ever have. she was fun to spend time with.







turkey lethargy set in and it was time to go home. i'd been out of my pj's for a few hours and was feeling the need for them again. first we had to get some leftovers. and we had to get our boys off the couch and out the door. megan pretended to be devastated that they were leaving, and they pretended not to like it.

the plan for tomorrow is to have no plan. i love days like that.