Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving: A time to give thanks

I struggled with that this year. I had so looked forward to a time spent with my side of the family for the first time ever and at the last minute it all fell through.
I had wonderful memories as a little girl spending Thanksgiving with all 15-16 of my other stair-step cousins and my kids have never had that (in such a big fashion).
God is the God of goodness though and He gave me a gift in the form of my husband's family. Two of his 5 cousins drove a combined grand total of 21 hours one way to spend 3-5 days on the dairy farm. They've never done that for Thanksgiving the nine years I've been in the family. Between the two cousins that came there were 9 kids. Throw in our 4 and mix in Luke's brother's 3 little girls and it was a recipe for chaos, laughter, and a hay load of fun with 16 children ranging in ages 2 months to 12 years. I grew up in a big family with lots of cousins, so for me it was everything I'd wanted. (not so sure about everyone else). = ) Everyone had a playmate all the way down to the smaller tykes.
The weather was, in a word, GORGEOUS the first day. The sky was overcast and there was a high chance of rain, so we wondered if the planned hayride and bonfire with smores would be a bust, but it wasn't. Here are a few of the highlights from the 4 days.

Here are 15 of the 18 grand kids that are in existence. Luke has a cousin in England who'd just had a baby and was unable to come. We missed her family!



The kids loved the hayride. I think a couple of them may have never been on one before. I know Good Lookin' and Nater Mater were a little overwhelmed when the tractor first started bumping us all down the road.










There was lots and lots of laughing and giggling and throwing hay (we put a stop the throwing hay) the whole way down the road.
Dear Grandmama broke taboo and bought all the boys cap guns. Having 3 little, somewhat wild, grandsons who adore her and severely extended the pouty lip when she at first told them "no guns" when choosing a gift in the toy aisle changed her mind. For the first time in history, she allowed little guns..much to the shock of the generation who was told "no." What can you say, grand kids are spoiled and so they should be.



Since we live near an airport that has planes flying over our heads on a regular basis, the planes had to be shot down. Every bird, duck, goose, squirrel and cow was aimed at as well. No shooting people please.










And for those that were thought to be too little to handle guns and wouldn't care, well, they just picked up straw and defied us all anyway.



With that many little people and that many adults (we were vastly outnumbered), we ate our yummy pre-thanksgiving day cookout dinner out in the carport. The tables were decorated "kid style" ie: no decorations that could be damaged. (which meant, no decorations at all). If needed, someone got up ran into the dark for who knows what and then ran back to their place at the table. We watched the lightning light up the sky off in the distance and prayed it wouldn't rain on us. It didn't. = )

Thanksgiving Day

Precious Jewel has 4 girl cousins close to her age. One is a first cousin and the other are second cousins (I think), or maybe it's once removed, or second cousins once removed. Someone can help me here. Anyhow, it's Luke's first cousin's kids. We only get to see them once a year if that, but she loves being with them. He new, and almost daily, question is, "mommy, why cant's I adopt a sister like Natty did?" Hmmm.....I tell her to keep praying about it. God does answer prayer and if He says, "yes" she'll get a sister. For now, it's about cousins and friends.

Thursday night we had all the girls over for a sleep-over. It was so fun watching them be girly and giggly and create their hilarious Wii characters. After the 7th or 8th "goodnight" and "no, you can't switch beds again" all was quiet, and I marveled at the precious lives God gives each of us as parents to care for.

Painting horses the next morning.
We had freezing rain most of that night and it was COLD outside!!!! The girls didn't seem to mind though and spent a good couple of hours out walking our very happy dog. (I had a 2 year old who didn't want to venture into the cold, so I missed some really beautiful pics). Oh well.

Precious Jewel's cousin has been taking Irish Dance lessons for the last year. We cranked up the music and stomped around.










Sweet girls

Friday night we had all the little boys over. Two of the aunts took the oldest 2 boys and the 4 girls to the movies. It was a bit crazy for me because Luke was working until after 10pm that night and it was me and 6 boys. AHHHHH!!!! But I was the one who invited them even without Luke there and I'm glad I did.

They did AWESOME I must say. Can I say that I am VERY thankful for LEGO'S? Whoever invented them, I hope they made billions because they deserve it for the hours upon hours of entertainment that those little toys provide for boys of all ages (and mommas too).









Saturday morning was cold too, but it didn't stop the boys for adventuring outside into the woods, shop and goat shed. Luke was home that morning too and let them feed and water the goats, play hide-and seek with them in the trees and then brought them inside to teach them how to play bumper pool

Nater Mater was a wee bit upset that he kept getting in trouble for moving the balls for the big boys.

We put the pool sticks up. From my childhood experience with a pool table, "ahem" the sticks are used more as weapons than tools to move little balls into pockets. My brother and I broke more than our fair share of pool sticks sword fighting in our basement.

So there you have it. I did spend several times crying missing my family, but God didn't allow me to wallow in self-pity. He gave me another family and wonderful people to spend Thanksgiving day with. I am so very thankful for His goodness.