Thanksgiving Day

So.......it's taken me a few days to get past the title of this post.  Actually, I meant to save to draft and instead published just the title.   It gave you something to look forward to huh?

Thanksgiving day was such a great day.  We got most of the decorating done the night before.  Here are some pictures of the calm before the storm the night before Thanksgiving.  The tables were ready for the onslaught of Thanksgiving eaters!

The living room table

The dining room

Out by the pool

The garage

Under the back deck

The fine china ready for a feast

I started trying to snap pictures of people as they came in.....that didn't last long as I quickly had to get busy!  Below is my son David, his fiance Arwen and her daughter Devin.

My sister, Debbie...her husband, Mike and their son Joshua

The host and hostess

We had a big announcement for Thanksgiving day!  My son David and his best girl Arwen officially announced their engagement to the family.  We couldn't be happier.

We were all so thankful that mama was able to be with us for Thanksgiving!  My sister Cathy, me, my sister Debbie and Mama.

Cousins greeting.....Bryce and our son Matt.  Just yesterday, I was picking them up from elementary school and now they are men.  Amazing and unbelievable!

Russell's 93 year old Uncle Hugh.  He dropped Russell's mother off and raced back home!  He really was invited, but I think the crowd scared him away!  We sent him a plate.

Russell and his mama, Mary Catherine

Me with my two mamas

Either mama was into the wine  (in the ice chest next to her)......she was guarding it.....or we were boring her!  

Mama with her two youngest granddaughters, Bella and Tori and their mama Monica

My brother Steve (Bella and Tori's dad) and my brother in law Dick

Waiting for the eating to commence

My sister Debbie's MIL Mary sitting with mama

My oldest nephew Don with his wife Kathleen

BIL Mike, nephew Mike and husband Russell.......We have lots of Mikes in our family and two sets of Mike and Debbies!  

Niece Jennie's sister Carrie.....so glad she and her two boys could join us for dinner

My oldest brother, Tommy and wife Lois

My youngest brother, Steve and my son David

My brother, Michael.  He looks so happy!  

Of course, no Thanksgiving is compete until you've had a little accident!  It just took a little ice and he was fine!

Lois with my niece, Amy

Lots of laughter during the day.....Matt laughing at something Jennie said while niece Joneida is putting out part of the feast!

Let the eating begin!  Let me just point out to you that this was just vegetables!  The meat was on another table!

Cindy, Lois and Mike

The newlyweds in the family, nephew Chris and wife Kayla

The boys....well some of them anyway

The grown up table!

Come on in and fix your plate

There's enough for all and then some!

Then there is dessert!

More grown ups

Outside, some of the girls

More girls

The younger crowd in the garage.  We probably should have cleaned more of the junk out of the garage, but it seemed to work fine!

A great after dinner game of basketball

Great niece Amanda, home from FSU and niece Joneida, over from Pensacola

This is a funny story (among others during our day)......great niece Tori didn't want to go home to Pensacola at the end of the day.....I asked her if she wanted to stay and live with us, she replied excitedly mommy!  to me!  I was laughing and said what about Uncle Russell and she, without hesitation, said daddy!  Her parents then said no and she started wailing!  

Beautiful family!!!  My nephew Mike and his wife Jennie and their children J.T., Abby and Emily.

Great niece Lauren came by for a little visit at the end of the day.  She lives in California now and we were so happy to see her!

What a wonderful day!  When everyone left and all the tablecloths and decorations were in the house, it started storming!  Thanks be to God for allowing it to hold off until our Thanksgiving day was done!

And as my dear grandmother used to say at the end of anything......the great battle ended and the sun went down.  Of course, this day it was the great feast of thanksgiving that ended.  And thankful we are for all our many blessings!

Praise be to God ...... 2 Corinthians 1:3

Disguise me as a deer .....or the one that got away!

Mabel, I TOLD you it would work to disguise ourselves as deer!  

Happy Thanksgiving to the one that got away!!!

My husband has motion cameras and for a long time I have said that I think the deer (and obviously the turkeys) pose for the camera!  This turkey is so relieved to be on camera and not on the table!

A baby changes everything....

Yes, I'm taking this title from a song.....but truly, doesn't a baby always change everything?  A baby takes you from being a selfish, all about me girl to being a responsible, gotta take care of a little person girl.  I'm pretty sure the week before Paul was born was the last full night's sleep I have had.

This is the baby that changed everything for me....my baby.  My first born.  

Paul weighed 3lbs 11 ozs when he was born 40 years ago....that is very hard for me to say...how can I have had a baby 40 years ago???

Things were very different then....no holding or touching your baby.  They stayed in an incubator in the nursery (no such thing as NICU).  Right before I left the hospital, they let me gown up, including mask, and hold him for about 25 seconds.  During that time, I remember gazing at him and saying your life will be so great because I love you so much!  And love him I did!

After leaving the hospital, I got to come twice a day and stand outside the glass window and look at him.    I'm serious.....just look.  I didn't know he had two birthmarks until the day I got to bring him home.  It seems incredible now, but like I said things were way different.  He stayed in that incubator 28 days.  When I brought him home he weighed 5 lbs.  That was the magic number at that time.  A baby couldn't leave the hospital until they weighed 5 lbs.

I remember the day the dr. called and said Today's the day!  You can come get your baby!  I rushed to tell my mil and fil and we all jumped in the car and away to the hospital we went.  I worried his outfit would be too big because it was for a newborn and he was almost a month old.  :)  I was so silly and young.  Of course it swallowed him!

I was 18 when Paul was born and his daddy was 20 and in the Army.  We were anything but prepared to raise a child.  Unfortunately, love is not enough and I forgot his manual at the hospital!   There are so many disciplines a child needs to learn, and we hadn't grown up enough to have learned them all ourselves!

I've written about this many times, here ,  here, and here  and there are more but that's enough!

My joy bubbles over today because Paul is becoming a different man!  He was in a program called Drug Court because of drug charges, he took it seriously and turned his life in a different direction.  He and his wife started attending church in addition to AA and NA.  I no longer hear anger in my son's voice when I talk to him.  I no longer hear him blame everyone but himself for his problems.  Those two things are huge for Paul.

Paul called me yesterday to tell me he has been released from Drug Court and his charges have been dropped.

I'm proud of him for so many reasons, but this is a special gift to himself!  To me, certainly, and to all who love him, but more to himself and I think over the coming months and years he will see more and more what a gift his life is and how productive he can be with God's help!  It might be a slow process, doing things step by step, but oh, so worth the effort!

I am so grateful and thankful to my dear Lord for starting him down this new road and doing a new work in his life.  I pray 1 Corinthians 10:13 for him......when you are tempted, God will provide a way to escape temptation.

I love you, son!

And I love this smile!

This Thanksgiving is extra special!  And as I've often promised the Lord, I give HIM all the glory!  

So.....Thanksgiving is coming....

Fast.....very fast.  We will be having about 52 people for Thanksgiving this year, so I need to be cleaning, clearing out the garage because we will need tables there, getting the tables and chairs and generally getting ready for THANKSGIVING.

What I'm actually doing....besides panicking, that is......is

Painting sample colors on my walls.....and here they are.  I'm loving this green for my living room

As you can see, it's taking several times to find the right grey for my bedroom.....not sure this is it yet.

The light is bad, but this is red......for my master bath......oh, yes, there will be a new light fixture.  These are soooooo old and out of date.

In case you were wondering, this is part of my warped personality.  When I have a big job ahead of me, I immediately start another big job as if it were the only thing I had going on.

Of course, we cannot possibly get the painting done before Thanksgiving so what you see is what my house will look like for that special day!  

Maybe we can just take votes on who likes what.  

Don't look at us,  it was her crazy idea.  All we wanted was a treat!