Thanksgiving Celebration

When our kids were really young we started the tradition of having Thanksgiving dinner at our house the weekend before the actual event. We did this because we always go to Ryan's parents house for the week of Thanksgiving and we look forward to it every year. But because there are so many people there, it is a great time of fellowship, but not so much a time of reflection and bonding for our own little family. We find that from the time we hit Pap and Nana's door in KY, we sort of go our separate ways, having fun all the while... which we love. However we wanted to also be sure that we had a time to sit down at a table and give thanks together.

Our little family Thanksgiving is always a time that I enjoy. We take the time to iron the tablecloth and prepare a nice meal just to celebrate together, something we rarely do. Since Grammy and Pa moved down a few years ago, we have enjoyed their company too.

Each year we do some sort of fun activities like these fun turkey cookies. In case you were wondering, it took 7, yes that's SEVEN stores to find that candy corn. Apparently, after Halloween stores do away with their candy corn. I guess it's not profitable to cater to the Thanksgiving holiday when you can fill up those aisles with inflatable Santas?!?

This year we each wrote a list of things we are thankful for and shared them together. It was funny to see how each of their lists reflect their individual personalities. For example one of our daughters who we call the "accessory queen" listed jewelry and nice clothes followed immediately by clean water. I guess it's all about balance.