Family Thanksgiving

Our family is richly blessed and it was good to have everyone home for a few days. Micah and Rhyne haven't been home since Christmas and Bryan hasn't really been home from the college campus any to speak of this semester. He came home Thursday night and the other two got home Monday night about 9 o'clock. I had made a crock pot of chili so that we could eat and it would still be hot when the travelers arrived. All of a sudden, the house was once again full of talking, laughter, and activity. When we settled in for bed, I told Collin, "It doesn't get any better than this--everybody is home and it's like old times. I'm happy and blessed."

Although we had quite a bit of together time and celebration time, each had an agenda which provided a week of relaxation, down time, and fun stuff to do. Bryan left Friday morning for Little Rock. One of his closest friends was getting married and he was playing the drums in the wedding reception band. He got in early Sunday morning and had a great time. Monday morning, he was up early and went duck hunting. He had a great time and killed his limit on ducks. This resulted in cleaning them in the afternoon with friends along with some cooking and taste-testing. He went hunting two more times before the week was out.

Micah and I got to do some shopping at the mall and some of our other favorite stores. We were somewhat successful. We just have a good time talking and planning for Christmas. We did make a detour to Chick-Fil-A. If you haven't tried the Peppermint Chocolate Shake you do not know know what you are missing. Be sure to go for the additional whipped topping and cherry. I may want another one before the season ends. We also split a pretzel before leaving the mall. This has become a tradition, but we were still a little full from our shake so one between us was enough. After all, we wanted to save room for turkey.

We celebrate with the traditional dinner with my mom and dad on Wednesday night. Collin smokes the turkey breast and mom does the sides and desserts. Collin know what he is doing on the smoker. That turkey was soooooooo good; very moist, favorable, and tender. Here is the spread below before we grabbed plates and forks.

Thursday morning, Micah and Rhyne packed up to head out to the Putman house. Collin helped me and we put up our Christmas tree and began bringing in all the other boxes to begin putting away fall decorations and getting out all the Christmas stuff. Late in the afternoon, we went out to the Elder's house to celebrate with them. Bryan came along.

Friday morning around 9 o'clock, I went to town to shop for a few Christmas bargains I was interested in. I do NOT need anything so badly that I need to shop in the early hours of the morning. I found what I was looking for, came home, had a snack of lunch, and spent the rest of the day decorating. This was also my Saturday agenda--decorating the house. My house is almost complete ready to celebrate the next holiday.

There were also a few other activities and surprises during the week, but I'm waiting to tell about those on another post. Now it is just about back to routine. Our NO kids left to head home this morning. Bryan is making plans to head back to the campus for about two more weeks, and Collin and I are back to work in the morning. Another wonderful thing about Thanksgiving is that I know in about 3 or 4 weeks, we get to do all this over again. I have lots to do in those weeks. More shopping, parties, and activities.

Tis the season,

Marcia