Thanksgiving Eve Day

Joe had to travel on Thanksgiving this year, so we decided to celebrate a day early.  Our family's tradition has always been to open our home to church/work friends who don't have any family nearby.  We usually have a decent crowd each year, but we were concerned that no one would come to celebrate with us a day early!  But we were wrong!  We had a great crowd - close to 45 people all together!  The food was spectacular and the fellowship was just what we all needed.

My pictures did not turn out very well - too much glare everywhere I turned......plus, I was so busy I almost forgot to take a few photos.  Anyway, here are the photos of our day!

David was very concerned that there would not be enough mashed potatoes!  However, Mrs. Wilford came through with 20 lbs. - plenty to go around.  Here is David on round two......or was it three?

Later in the evening, after the bonfire where everyone who went out was FROZEN, the young people had a rousing game of cards.  I have no idea what they were playing but there sure was a lot of hooting and hollering going on in there!  (What are they?  older kids?  young adults?  teen and post-teens?)

My Thanksgiving Eve started out very stressful.  Isaac had been complaining of severe stomach pains since Monday morning.  I took him into the ER that afternoon, convinced that he had appendicitis.  However, all the tests they ran came back negative.  We struggled through Tuesday, and late Tuesday night (11:30 pm to be exact)  Rachel and I drove him into Tucson to TMC because Isaac was still in so much pain.  We spent the entire night there, they ran more tests, and again nothing showed up.  We arrived back home at 6:30 am and I was able to get a quick hour nap before preparing for our guests.  I was running on adrenalin most of the day until about 8:00 when it hit me.  But Isaac was in so much misery, crying, most of the day - my heart was broken for him.

He has slept through the night the last two nights and seems to be feeling better.  He is eating more, and playing with Joshua, but still complains now and again about his stomach.  We are praying for a complete recovery for him!

Anyway, celebrating on Thanksgiving Eve may become a new tradition for us.  It allowed some families to join us that would have been celebrating with their own families on Thanksgiving Day.  We all had a wonderful time  - we have much to be thankful for, for sure!  

Random Happenings..............

Last week, Isaac and I had a visit to our dentist.  Rather than drag Joshua along (who was cavity free, by the way), I checked with Miss Amanda to see if she would be willing to watch him.  The boys still talk about when Miss Amanda stayed with us for a few days, and always ask when she can come visit again!  Anyway, Isaac was none too pleased to have been left out of this fun by going to the dentist, but he handled it well. Looks like big sister, Ashley even got in on the fun!

Some serious work seems to be going on around this tree. Love the Home Depot apron!

Boy, look at that smile!  Having lunch on the steps with Miss Ashley!

Thanks, girls, for making Joshua feel so special!  So, here is Isaac at the dentist office looking cheery!

David's been doing a lot of brush-hogging (mowing) lately, and is really improving on his driving skills!

Flags flying high as the boys and I were in the parking lot of the high school waiting for David one afternoon.

The kittens are doing well and are growing nicely.  Snowball, the white one, like to be in the food bowl, which makes it rather tricky for the other two.

A special present came in the mail from big sister Courtney!  We just started reading Pinnochio and the illustrations are magnificent!

Well, those are some random happenings at our house this past week.    I'll end with this shot of the beautiful harvest moon as it came up over the mountains.