This & That: Thankful and Festive

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend with family.

As previously mentioned, the trees were cut down early in the week and it was nice to get back to that tradition. Last year, we had to grab one from a tree lot because my husband was quarantined in the basement with Covid. Let me say there's absolutely nothing wrong with trees from a tree lot. We did that for many years, but have grown to love the tradition of tromping around in the hills to find just the right one. My husband is very picky about his Christmas trees. They have to look a certain way and in the process of decorating, the more lights, the better. He's pretty good about getting his own way when it comes to certain things. I can't tell you how many years running I had to make a mid-decorating trip to Target to get more lights.

My daughter and her husband helped get the table all set up for dinner, even going to the trouble of folding the kid napkins into turkey shapes.

The turkey theme carried over to the rolls, that my grandkids said looked like feet. I'm not sure this tradition will stick. Who wants to eat feet?

We had a slightly smaller than usual gathering for Thanksgiving dinner. Marc's family was celebrating with Rachelle's parents, and Evan's wife and kids were in Utah with her family. He was here with us because his father-in-law tested positive for Covid early in the week. Since Evan is with his 88 year old grandpa this week, he decided not to risk exposure.

Jack and Leo were definitely the hot commodity this weekend.

Everyone was willing to snuggle them.

Even my mother, whose tolerance level for all kinds of things is changing.

Jack and Leo, however, were pretty tolerant about being passed around.

I love watching my boys with babies. It reminds me of their dad at this stage. He's always been very hands-on with our children and the grandkids. Of course there were skirmishes about dirty diapers, but for the most part the men in the family are good at pitching in.

Jack and Leo were ready for dinner.

And so were we.

This led to the post-feast napping.

The tryptophan coma....

Then when everyone got their second wind, there was pie. I tried a couple of new recipes that might stick around in the rotation.

We got the lights on the tree on Friday night and then decorated it on Saturday. Marc's family was able to join us for the decorating after her parents went home.

Bryce and Sarah were with us for the festivities.

It was a loud, chaotic process with 7 grandkids vying for ornaments, but I will absolutely take it every time over any iteration of solitary decorating. Every, single working strand of lights is on that puppy which makes my husband happy.