Thanksgiving Day Is A Happy Day

The kids and I piled in and headed "home" for Thanksgiving!

MC cried, I mean, screamed, for nearly two hours of the drive there.

T stayed home. He had to work and OH, how we missed him!

We walked in the door of Mama's house and this beautifully set table greeted us.

So did my Uncle...the kids hit him up for a little reading time!

Mama got up early Thanksgiving morning and put TWO birds in! (And you should've seen the way we rigged the cookie pan atop both birds for a breakfast of turnovers...hee hee!)

Aunt K and Uncle M were there...

with sweet baby MT in tow! She is PRECIOUS!!! As soon as I laid eyes on her I scooped her up and was immediately attacked by my own offspring with cries to "PUT HER DOWN NOW!!!" Evidently I interrupted playtime.

My baby sister and her husband were there. (They always dress JUST alike. -hee hee, kidding!)

Their little man was there, too! I scooped him up and got similar pleas to "put him down!"

Mama's sister and her husband came, too. (Not sure when the last time is they - mama, her sis and bro, were all together for a holiday???)

Mama cooked and cooked and cooked and the spread was as gorgeous as it was tasty! We ate and ate and ate!!! It was wonderful!

After lunch the brood begged to be let out! And let them out we did.

After they'd run for a while, they collapsed on the sidewalk...

and then got up and ran...

and played...

and imagined...

and dreamed...

(yes, that's a dinosaur tattoo...in an effort to free up a few extra seconds, I instructed MW on how to apply a temporary tattoo. She disappeared with two sheets of 80 to pick the one she wanted. Ten minutes and 80 tattoos later, the older two of my children arrived... thoroughly tattooed.)

It was a good Thanksgiving and we have much to be thankful for!

Including a helpful and loving brother-in-law, a patient and kind Uncle, and a gracious cousin!

See...I was supposed to take the kids over to T's cousin's for dinner Saturday night. We were due at 5pm. It's a really long story, but my brother-in-law (Uncle M) spent over an hour trying to replace my low beam right light...and my Uncle drove me multiple places in search of a new (correct) bulb...and after two hours of all this, with the headlight still not fixed, T's cousin so graciously suggested we stay home and not worry about trying to make it for dinner. I was so thankful for her extreme graciousness! And after agreeing to just stay put, I nearly burst into tears out of pure frustration and exhaustion.

And, can I also tell you that I drug all three children into an auto parts store to purchase the low beam light. It was dusk. The guy behind the counter wasn't the friendliest. To boot, he had a HUGE tattoo on his neck. Little man pointed and pointed and asked and just would not be quiet about it! Finally I said, "It's a tattoo...it's body art." Little man: "but WHY? WHY he have dat? WHY he color crayons on his neck?" The guy was sort of a jerk about it. (Like...I kind of wished T (or ANY MAN) had been there with me. It was a little scary.) Totally ticked off, he told the kids it's a "tribal mark." Of course, they asked what that was...and didn't stop asking. It was bad.

I told my sister and she said, "what does he expect?"

Obviously, Mr. Tattoo doesn't have kids.

And obviously, I need to teach mine tact!

All in all, a great weekend of catching up with family from near and far! We came home exhausted. Like, kids in bed at 6 pm, and me and T in bed at 7 pm kind of exhausted!

It was good to go and it's good to be back! Especially back home with my man...who is scheduled for a root canal on the 11th...until then, he's in a good bit of pain. Poor guy.