The Marathon Weekend

We had a very busy Thanksgiving weekend, and though we are thankful to get back to ‘normal’ life, it was a delight to see so much family! It all started with Abigail’s birthday party, when my (Licia) family came for the day. Not only did we have a good time at the house with the children, but my mom, my sweet sister and myself all scurried out the door after the festivities and went to the Salvation Army Thrift Store – it was family day and almost all the clothes were half off! So, I completely switched out Andrew’s wardrobe, added a couple things to mine, and found a few more prizes for the birthday girl.

Thursday brought a morning full of preparing a few dishes to take to Andrew’s folks’ house for the big Turkey Day. Before we had our turkey dinner, Abbi had round two of her birthday gifts. As I said before, she received a pair of cowgirl boots (and a nice cowgirl outfit) but she also received a wonderful array of very crafty items that she has already tried her hand at – a little weaving set, beads to make necklaces, and some paint-your-own-ponies.

"Prizes for ME?!?!"

Cow Girl

Liamiah pushing Lilly

It wasn’t long until the majority of Andrew’s family started pouring in. Andrew is one of six children so now that they are all married there are twelve kids. Sarah, the oldest sister, waited a long time for Catherine (Kitty-Bob) the youngest; now both of them have four extra sisters – for better or for worse! In any event, we all have fun together. So, in the house for Thanksgiving Day there were nine grandchildren – 8 of which are age 5 or younger – and most of the twelve children. And, there was beloved GG: Great Grandma whose arms are always ready to hold any of her great grandchildren.

GG holding baby Lincoln

Andrew’s mom, Mary, did a wonderful job preparing ample amounts of tasty food – not only on Thanksgiving Day, but also on Friday and Saturday! Since most everyone was in from afar we made a weekend of it – lots of hunting, playing, watching mighty machine videos (and some girly tear-jerkers), playing with play dough, drawing, and good ol’ jibber-jabber. I’m sure the dishwasher paid for itself with all the dishes that were done! Mom did a great job of opening her house to all of us, making us all feel welcome. Thanks mom!

Lets see… Some highlights for our family were (1) Abbi’s boots, (2) Working in the Shop – our kids helped Andrew make a base for my piano table, (3) Tricks with Uncle Ben, (4) Story time with Aunt Sarah, (5) Play Dough – mom made a fresh batch on Saturday and I think it was played with almost all day, (6) an outing to Wegmans, (7) Sharing the fun toys that Grampa and Gramma have, (8) Seeing cousins, (9) Phin got to help cut up a deer, (10) Eating the deer meat that Phin got to help cut up… that is just a sample of the fun we got to have!

Now, believe it or not we didn’t get very many pictures. There were so many other cameras flashing all weekend that we didn’t really think to get ours out. But, we do have a fairly good shot of all the cousins lined up on the couch!

Lydia, Abbi, Angel and Ariel, Phin, Lincoln, Liam, Nathan, Micah

Phin and Lincoln

Hope you all had a fun Thanksgiving!