Thanksgiving 2006

Thanksgiving is a holiday that for us, lasts a whole weekend. We start by having lunch at either my mom's house or John's mom's house, go to the other one's house for dinner and then leave for Tallahassee to visit John's dad and his step-mom on Friday. It's always a fun time but I get tired just thinking about it. I'm a person who can get myself very worked up in anticipation of an event, or in this case, a series of events, but this year I was determined not to. I was going to enjoy the time we had with each part of our families and not get too worried about logistics, naps, etc. And I did! We had a very enjoyable lunch with my family and then headed over to John's mom's house for dinner/leftovers. John's brother and his family had been at her house for lunch and then Jim's (John's step-dad) son and his family stopped by, so we were the third set of guests to grace their house that day. Even though we only saw Anna and Lee and the kids for a brief moment, it was great to see them. Anna is the one who set John and me up on our first date so we are forever indebited to her! She and Lee have two beautiful boys and John and I really enjoy being with their whole family. They live in Augusta so we don't get to see them very often.

Our trip to Tallahassee on Friday went smoothly and we had an enjoyable visit with everyone. There was a house full! John's brother and his family drove down as well and Jackie (John's step-mom) was babysitting her son's children for the weekend. So there were 7 kids ages 6 and under. John David loved being with all the big kids and the big kids really took to him as well. We kept up with the tradition of having brunch at "Another Broken Egg Cafe" Saturday morning and getting pictures made with Santa at the cafe which is on a lake. This was John David's second time to visit Santa but the first time he was only 3 months old and didn't really know the difference of who was holding him. Well this year he did!!!! He was okay with seeing Santa from a distance, but once we tried to get him to sit in Santa's lap, it was a different story. We were aiming for a picture of all the grandkids together with Santa and what we ended up with was a classic picture of a terrified 14 month old and 6 kids looking at him to see what the big deal was.


All in all it was a great Thanksgiving and we are grateful to have so many people who love us and want to be with us to celebrate God's goodness and bountiful blessings.