I love the holidays! I love getting together with extended family, laughing, eating, playing games and watching the kids play with their cousins! I have a very large family, almost all of whom live in the same city so, holidays can be crazy busy too. Brian's family however is much smaller. In fact, Brian has one aunt who lives in Arvada that we still sadly rarely see and his parents are both in other states as well as his sister. So, typically we are with my family for all holidays except when his Mom and Chip come for Christmas which is always SO special! Brian does love my family, but he was raised much different when it comes to holidays and family gatherings and he does not like spending his holidays driving around from house to house and ultimately spending lots of time in the car going to the next place and I cant say that I blame him. We will be here for dinner, there for visiting, then the next place for dessert and it gets VERY rushed! It is even harder now that we have kids and we want them to enjoy their time and not rush out everywhere they go. So, this year I wanted to do something to surprise Brian and have a Thanksgiving home, just us 4. I was excited to make the whole meal and sit around together and enjoy it, do whatever we wanted to do, drink wine, play toys, take naps, watch football, the possibilities were endless. A few days before Thanksgiving Brian's friends Dominic and Mike decided they wanted to spend Thanksgiving at our house! At first, to be honest, I was a tiny bit bummed that our thanksgiving wouldn't be just us 4 like I had pictured. However, it soon became clear to me that there was a MUCH bigger picture for this year! Have you ever heard the saying "its a God thing"? It was a total God thing! I have known Mike and Dominic for a long time and a few years ago their mom struggled and ultimately lost her battle with cancer. Their father also died when they were really young. I knew them when they lost their mom and it was a painful thing to watch. I was so excited they wanted to be with us on Thanksgiving and I put my "just us 4" on the back burner and got really excited about our new "family" that day. This year, Dominic and Mike became family! It was an amazing day with laughter, football, and great company. They both showed up dressed nice, played with our kids and made it an extra special day just by being with us! This years Thanksgiving was different, but in the best kind of way! I truly believe there was a message for me this year in our Thanksgiving! It taught me lots of things but mostly, family is a cherished gift and although I am always thankful for each of our families, it made me step back and realize that I would rather have five places to go in one day, be rushed from house to house with people who love us and want to see us as much as possible. It also made me realize that family is not just blood, we are blessed to have great friends in both Brian and my life and they are our families too! Blessed, Blessed, Blessed! It was a great Thanksgiving...
*thank*ful!
First Turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and green beans and she LOVED it!
This picture cracks me up! I picked up the turkey and almost dropped it, the pan was SO heavy so I was telling B to hurry up!
Making a pinecone bird feeder
Watching the Parade
"special treat"...sprite and cranberry juice
I regret not getting a picture of ALL of us on Thanksgiving and didn't realize until after that Mike and Dominic weren't in any pictures. It was a bummer because they *made* the day!
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