Thanksgiving weekend!

Well, we made it through another Thanksgiving - including a trip to Paulding county. I love going home and seeing everyone, but I hate the drive and non-stop action once we get there (and not to mention the drive back home). Thanksgiving day was low-key. We went to Smithville and spent the day with Matt's family. The meal was a traditional turkey dinner and it was wonderful. Chris always goes overboard with the food, but it always tastes awesome! It was really nice to see Julie, Ben and Andrew and I know they always like seeing Lexi. She got a lot of gifts and LOVED her ice-cream cake from Dairy Queen. After a relaxing day, it was off to work for me on Friday. It would not have been bad, but I knew we had a 3 hour drive ahead of us after I got off at 7, which would put us in Haviland around 11 pm! I think next time we will wait and leave the next morning. One more night in our own bed is well worth it!


Whew! Family pictures are once again over with for another 5-6 years - and by family, I mean the entire Thomas clan... all 16 of us! If you think that was no easy task, you would be exactly right. From clothing selection, to photographer, to location, to including 2 toddlers... let's just say it is over with for a long while now. After that, we enjoyed a couple non-traditional meals of chicken enchiladas at G.G. Eileen's for lunch and croissants with various lunch meat for supper. It was really good to see a couple new (and one permanently new) faces at G.G.'s this year. Welcome Garrett to the family and congrats to you and Maely. You have a busy year ahead of you! Also, Shannon - I hope we didn't scare you off! The 2 little girls are thouroughly entertaining (that is after they have each napped). It is amazing to see how they interact with each other and play off the adults. Lexi loves her new dolly and stroller from Paw-Paw and GraNola, but isn't so sure about letting Kaity hold her new baby. We will have to work on sharing! Also, in addition to Oh Dear! and Oh Shoot! Lexi's new favorite words are BUG-HOUSE! Thanks a lot Paw-Paw Bud!


That just leaves us with Sunday and the Ginter bunch! After church, we got to Gra-Nola and Paw-Paws and could just smell the lasagna, yumm! Promptly at 1 pm, Andrew, Jessica, Keri and Mike arrived with Connor, Lillian and Carter! Wow was that a busy meal. I think we had more booster chairs than regular chairs around the table. Banky had a fine time cleaning up after the kids! After the meal, the kids all played and then we attempted to get a quick photo, but I think we may have waited a tad too long because over half of them were crying (nap time). The crew bound for Indiana took off just before 4 pm. Not long afterwards Matt and I hit the road with Lexi and Banky - right after Brittany and Matt left with Kaity - and got home right at 7 p.m. Uncle Benny was the last to leave (with a lot of the left-overs).

What a long and tiring weekend, but what great times! I wouldn't trade them for anything! Enjoy the pics and to see more, check out the Kodak site.