« So Much To Be Thankful For | Main | Real Thanksgiving »

A Week Of Family Celebration

Early in November (8th-14th), my sister's family and my parents were here for a week long celebration.
tgbogardi.jpg

We started things off the first night with a belated 3rd birthday bash for Brooke (mid-October).
Brooke3.jpg

The next night the adults hit the town, while Grammy and Grandpa spent quality time with the kids. We all went wild and had one mixed drink, which we all agreed was our current limit. Parenting has crippled our livers!!

The following day we were on to Thanksgiving! Because of an incoming storm we decided to go out and enjoy our new fire pit before dinner. What says "Holiday" better than s'more appetizers?!
firepit.jpg

smorebaby.jpg
I got to simultaneously enjoy some of the good things in life: beer, a s'more, and a cute baby that I don't have to take care of when he cries!

Then it was on to the feast. We had full Thanksgiving fixings: maple glazed turkey, salad, stuffing, squash, potatoes (homegrown!), and pumpkin ice cream (which won the vote over pumpkin pie by a large margin). It was just like the real thing, but without football (it was Tuesday).
TGtake1.jpg

luuuke.jpg
"What's a guy gotta do to get some turkey around here?"
manbooks.jpg
Liam was thankful for more men in the house to share his love of trucks and tractors.

Veteran's Day is my sister and bro-in-law's actual anniversary, so we sent them out for another night on the town.

And then, Thursday we were ready for Christmas! We even had a tree and everything. ;)
evergreen.jpg

And we posed for the obligatory family photos. Yet again, Megan ended up in a sundress for Christmas.
xmassmiths.jpg

We had another great dinner, this time with prime-rib from our own pasture! You can see it was very different from the Thanksgiving celebration, because we wore red and got out Christmas napkins and plates.
earlyxmas.jpg

About five minutes in to dinner the kids were clamoring to open gifts.
listerxmas.jpg
"presents! presents! presents!"

Finally we let them have at it.
opengift.jpg

barbiedoll.jpg

brookesled.jpg

elephantshirt.jpg

The night concluded with a little downtime on the couch.
xmaswrapup.jpg

It was a great visit with lots of cousin fun. We wish we could do it more often.