We were very thankful this Thanksgiving. The Lord has done a work in our family showing us how infinitely blessed we are to have each other. Love and grace have been common themes in our house as of late. And this fall we were excited to make sure we start new traditions and teach Noah what being thankful really means.
At school, his class had a Friendship Feast which was basically a pot luck lunch. During circle time, the kids brainstormed Thanksgiving dishes and what is each child's favorite holiday dish. Then the kids signed up for items to bring. Noah signed me up for chocolate chip cookies...Those aren't really a Thanksgiving dish or dessert for our family, but good (and easy) nonetheless.
The day of the feast, Mrs. Rowe pushed all the tables together to make one big long banquet table. The feast ranged from corn to fruit salad to roasted chicken to green beans. There were hot rolls, pumpkin pie and mac and cheese! Of course the kids just picked at their food like little ones do, but it was still fun to see all the different kinds of favorite dishes! The kids were all smiles, too. What a special way to celebrate being thankful for school and friendships!
Noah and Anke'ona
Lupita and Mia
Lola and Dymond
Cody and Noah
On Thanksgiving Day, we loaded Mimi up in the truck with us along with our sides of green bean casserole and marshmallow yams and headed to Seminole to see the Goodnight clan. It's our tradition to spend Thanksgiving day at Cody's parents. His siblings and some of his extended family all come over for a big feast that Nana puts together. Yummy food, lots of desserts, noisy conversations, laughter and fun is what Thanksgiving is like for us. After we have scoured the Black Friday ads, the girls get together for board games.
I'm happy to report that I actually won a Scrabble game this year against my wordsmith, published author mother-in-law, witty, medical-brained sister-in-law, and business woman of America mom! Me! Alison! I won! Only once though. It was pure luck. Then my mom continued her legacy of defeating all of us embarassingly...except for when Sundy, my other witty sister-in-law, joined the game. She used all her letters in one turn scoring 50 points plus the points of the word she spelled. She beat the pants off us right from the beginning....Next year, Sundy. Do over.
Cody spent his Thanksgiving in the woods hunting deer. He saw a few: a doe and a spike buck, but nothing to shoot at. He said he's saving the spike buck for Noah to harvest in a few years.
For Black Friday, I did not hit up any sales. Noah wasn't in to a whole lot of big items this year, so instead of shopping for presents, Cody and I "shopped" for deer. Yep. We still got up at the crack of dawn...well before the crack of dawn...to make it to our tree stand on the high line before the deer began to move. We only saw one little buck twice...Probably the same one Cody is saving for Noah. It was nice to be together doing something we both can enjoy. And it's nice to know we can just be still together and don't need to fill the empty space with anything. We can just be. And I'm thankful for that.
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Noah got started early on his Santa list. On the way home from Seminole, he circled away at the Toys-R-us ad noting all the things he'd like to see under the tree. We are very thankful to have a little boy we can spoil with surprises under the Christmas tree. He's absolutely the best.
