Thanksgiving

We were blessed this year with good weather and some vacation days for Ben, so we were able to go down to Lakeview to celebrate Thanksgiving early with my side of the family. We came back the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and then were able to celebrate with both the Morris and Luscombe extended families...that's a whole lot of celebrating! We are very thankful to be close with family, and were reminded even more of how special these gatherings are, knowing that we probably won't be home for Thanksgiving for several years due to our Mexico move.

Sunday church: the boys and Papa were all in plaid.

I love these pictures! They all look so handsome!

 Josh fished literally for HOURS.

 The big activity of Lakeview was gingerbread houses with cousins (Katie and her family came down to Lakeview too!) Mom, the boys and I were in charge of putting the houses together. 

 The boys loved helping

 Josh was thrilled to finally have a buddy to fish with him. He and Edmund are so sweet together.

 The big kids played many different games together. It's amazing to have kids old enough to set up and play games all by themselves! (Although the group of five kids did have a real hard time deciding which game to play and spent a lot of their time debating over what to do. Tough decisions.)

 Gingerbread house making; Papa was in charge of helping Seth. (Sam on right)

 Clara and Miriam

 Joshy and I were partners. He and Edmund had gingerbread trains to decorate. 

 Edmund and Titi were partners...he was obsessed with putting BIG trees on top of his train and much to his dismay, they kept toppling down.

See that furrowed brow on Edmund? Its due to the tree problem mentioned above. 

Josh was very proud of his train 

  The big kids and their houses: Aidah, Seth, Miriam, Clara and Sam

 Little John Henry is just the sweetest thing...we all love taking turns holding him!

 Everyone around the table for an early Thanksgiving feast!

 We finished the evening with coloring and a Disney movie

 This is a very tired Josh from staying up late and getting up early lots of days in a row

  It was an "on" year for our Morris side, which means that about 70 Morris family members all gather for a huge Thanksgiving meal at Eagle Fern camp out in Estacada. I love watching the boys play with their cousins: they had a lot of fun playing ping pong, basketball, football, and lots of other things that camp provides. 

 Josh and Ellie had a blast together. They really love each other and were thrilled to find out that Ellie was going to spend that night at our house!

  The family for dinner.

 Nate and Holly spent that night at our house with their two little girls. Holly and I got to do some Black Friday shopping together the next morning while the daddies were in charge of breakfast. We hung out at our house most the day and then headed to Aloha to celebrate with Diane's side of the family for dinner. That evening as we left, both Josh and Ellie were so dismayed that the sleepover wasn't continuing another night!