Sometime in the mid-80's my family sat down to Thankksgiving dinner in full regalia - due to my irrational need to meet some fancy expectation I had conjured up in my imagination! So Dado put on his tuxedo, Mojo pulled out the fine china, and everyone enjoyed a special holiday dining experience at my request (some might say, insistence):
Here we are, 25 years later and it seems I have shed all my crazy expectations for the perfect family holiday meal (well, my husband might not say that ALL have been shed!):
No fancy attire - heck the boys weren't even clean! - and no fancy cutlery. But somehow, our family managed to thoroughly enjoy our day together and remain grateful for so many things...~
Dad spent most of the day watching football in his pjs:
photo courtesy of Sam
And the boys tore up the house to make various forts, prisons, and a school for all their plush toys - which all eventually degenerated into a pile of pillows at the bottom of the stairs for jumping into!photo courtesy of Sam
Perhaps my favorite part of the day was the FFF (forced family fun) that I imposed on the crew at dinner (see the note about crazy expectations above). The boys all played along graciously and I think they even found it kind of fun... and so, here are the results of the Thankgiving ABCs:OUR FAMILY IS THANKFUL FOR:
Asparagus
Brothers
Cheesecake
Deer
Education
Fall
Granparents
Home
Icicles
Jets
Kisses
Leaves
Mommy
Nice
Open space
Pigs
Quizzes
Rolls
Ski season
Turkey
Ukeleles
Venus Flytraps
Winter
X Rays
You
Zebras
And I am grateful for my family - both at home and extended - for their seemingly neverending generosity and understanding when it comes to how I see the world!
Hope you all had a heart-warming holiday
Thanksgiving weekend is our traditional time for a family hunting trip ~ 
I think Hamp played hard enough and was ready to get the tree home 
Spent the rest of the evening trimming the tree, listening to the season's first Christmas carols, and watching the boys get excited for the season!
Happy Holiday Season!!!
And the boys tore up the house to make various forts, prisons, and a school for all their plush toys - which all eventually degenerated into a pile of pillows at the bottom of the stairs for jumping into!
Perhaps my favorite part of the day was the FFF (forced family fun) that I imposed on the crew at dinner (see the note about crazy expectations above). The boys all played along graciously and I think they even found it kind of fun... and so, here are the results of the Thankgiving ABCs:
And I am grateful for my family - both at home and extended - for their seemingly neverending generosity and understanding when it comes to how I see the world!
Of course, the boys thought it was fun to get geared up and shovel the stuff around...
... let's hope so, because I'm sure there's much more to come!!!
If you look closely, you'll see all three handsets in use so everyone could send their birthday wishes to Yaya:.jpg)
It was so nice out, we then decided to try a little hike along the gully behind the property:
The whole gang!
Uncle T headed home after lunch and we had a nice afternoon at the movies (MegaMind!) and hanging out at the house! The boys were wiped out so after dinner we were able to get them to bed and enjoy a little adult time - some great dessert (cheesecake - yum!!!) and several rounds of CLUE!!!
And everyone got a turn on the swingy-thingy!
Yep - looks like Sam waited to see if the others made it safely to the bottom!
Hamp got into some climbing of his own:
And with a little help from Mom, Sam made it down the very big slide!
We got Hamp off the playground just long enough to have him snap a shot of the grown-ups!
On the way home we stopped for lunch and a good stretch and I couldn't help but get a couple of shots of the Rocky Mountains in the background - they are currently snowcapped and we all got excited to see a few skiiers out already!
In the car, Hamp says,
Yes, Hamp - we truly are the lucky ones!
