Thankful

I know I'm late to hop on the Thanksgiving/Thankful train, but here's my post . . .

We are so fortunate to get to celebrate most holidays with our families (and we just get to see them often, a huge benefit of living in our home community).  I love traditions, and love to gather with everyone to share a yummy meal.

This year I am thankful that we got to host one of the meals (the extended Miller family)!  Before you are too impressed, please realize that hosting is just about all that we did -- my mom did the traditional hostess cooking of the turkey, dressing, and potatoes, and everyone else pitched in and brought the other side dishes -- way too many to name -- but all sooooooo delicious.  Billy did make his amazing pumpkin spice cheesecake too! (drooling . . .)

As always, the food was amazing and plentiful (there is always wayyyyyy too much/too many options!), and it was fun to be able to host everyone in our home.  We were missing 6, but were able to seat 21 Millers comfortably.  

Here's the kids' (and their kids') table in the living room. . .

 . . . and the other table in the dining room - the "grown ups" with a few more "kids" mixed in

I was very excited to (finally!) have the opportunity to use the lovely "good" dishes, silverware, and glassware that we got when we were married (I've used it only a handful of times, really). It was also a lot of fun to decorate the tables.  (I felt like a real grown up!) :)

Miss Elise thoroughly enjoyed her first Thanksgiving feast . . . and eagerly ate mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and even cranberry salad!

It happened to be unseasonably warm on Thanksgiving day (and then the temps plunged the next day), so the kiddos were able to play outside. Madi and Norah were great cousins and spent the afternoon playing with Elise.  They took B & E on their first double wagon ride in the backyard.

As is our tradition, the women crafted, while the men lounged and watched football slept.  I didn't get any pics of our completed projects, but this year we made yarn wrapped letters, inspired by (none other than) pinterest!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Hartsocks on Friday evening, but sadly I don't have any photos of that feast.  We again stuffed ourselves with yummy turkey, ham, and all the trimmings.  Mmmmm!




I haven't blogged in a while, and therefore had not uploaded any pics off our camera in a while . . . but when I did last night, I found some of these that Billy took.  I sure am thankful for our little ones (who are not seeming so small these days!) . . .

Elise will be 9 months old on Sunday (sniff, sniff).  She is growing like a weed and thinks she's big stuff.  Doesn't she look soooooo big here?  She's loving her discovery that she can see out the porch windows!

What a pair . . . couldn't imagine life without these two! (What?  Is it not typical for a member of your household to wear PJs and a monkey cape in the middle of the day?)