Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

It doesn't seem possible that we are already fully emerged in another holiday season. Time goes so fast and try as I might I can't seem to slow it down or bottle it up for later use so I suppose I should just sit back and enjoy the ride. The season kicked off with a bang yesterday with one of my favorites...Thanksgiving. I really love Thanksgiving (especially now that the Pacers no longer have home games that day and Dean can actually spend the day with us! We started our holiday celebration Wednesday afternoon when daddy surprised us by coming home early from work. We decided to reward him with some yard work!! The fun continued that night when we ordered pizza (Aunt Mallory and Aunt Sissy joined us) and put up our Christmas tree. Ben was so excited and he and daddy did pretty much all of the decorating, while I ran Joe control, which is a definite break from tradition since I have always done the majority of the tree decorating in the past. The tree went up without incident...except for the fact that Dean had to make not one but two emergency Target runs for tree lights!! Joey was very impressed with the tree and kept staring at it and saying "oooohhhh" and then clapping his hands. Thanksgiving morning we all got up in a great mood and sent Dean down in the basement to get out the rest of our Christmas decorations. Ben and I turned on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and set about the daunting task of putting out our plethora of decor including my ever growing snowman display. I love all of our pieces and had fun telling Ben the story behind each and every item. Ben's favorite thing was putting up the nativity scene. Joey's favorite thing was crawling all over the place and seeing what he could put in his mouth before being caught! He was also terribly impressed with the blow up Frosty the Snowman!Joey not particularly thrilled at being told to get his little paws off the tree... We got showered and dressed and headed to my parent's house around noon for an amazing meal. We hung out with my family for the remainder of the afternoon and returned home exhausted but happy around 5:00 p.m. I can't even begin to list all of the things for which I am thankful this year...my gifts are too numerous to count. Family, friends, faith, health, love, security; all of this I have in abundance and am so grateful to God for being so, so good. One of the new gifts I am thankful for this year is the fact that I have gotten more involved with our church. For the first time in my life I am a member of a church that truly feels like home, surrounded by people who feel like family. I feel very blessed for this gift this Thanksgiving. There is one thing I am not grateful for this Thanksgiving, and that was the absence of my brother at the Thanksgiving table. It wasn't the same not celebrating with him. He was in Tennessee working and was grately missed.

Dean had to work today...a long time actually. He had to leave for work before 5:00 a.m. for a ticket promotion and won't be home until after 11:00 p.m. tonight! Poor guy! The boys and I were treated by a visit from Ethan, Cherrylynn, and Cadalyn. As always, the boys attempted to out do one another for CJ's attention. She was not overly impressed with either of them, but did enjoy their book collection!

This picture is for Uncle Craig, Ethan and Benny say "hook em horns!"...

Later in the morning Nana and the boys and I headed up to Aunt Sissy and Uncle Clint's new house to spend the day with Michelle and Mallory. The boys had fun playing at Sissy's, especially with the box tunnel/fort Nana made for them.

We are gearing up for a busy weekend...culminating with Joey's birthday party on Sunday afternoon. I can't wait to celebrate with my little man, though I truly cannot believe he is about to be 1 year old. Time truly does fly when you're having fun!