Thanksgiving

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