Giving Thanks in black and white

Our Thanksgiving Friday in black and white. Isn’t it cool how the women wore dark clothing and the guys light. This was totally planned. Yea right. (Tessa, Greg, Me, Jim, Julie)

Did you ever look at your shoes? Jim’s mom and Greg were checking theirs out. She very seriously told Greg that shoes these days cost $10 a pair – that’s ridiculous! That wicked Alzheimer’s disease has taken hold of her pretty good. She had us all confused, calling her daughter, Sandy, Verda (her sis’s name), Tessa was Sandy and Sandy’s daughter Liz was Tessa.

We all stood in a circle, holding hands, and said a prayer of thanks. We have so much to be thankful for. After that all bets were off. The feeding frenzy began. How can it take so many hours to fix the food, and so little time to eat it?

Little Miss Reagan had her own private dining area.

Say “cheese” Austin! The younger grandkids were at this table. Cara wasn’t too thrilled to be cast with the little ones. That’s ok dear, you will graduate to the teen table next year.

Travis, Emily, Paige, Cody. Paige is Jim’s brother’s girl.

This is the reason Travis has such a strange look on his face in the previous picture. He was working on one of those totally mature teen moments of showing the food he was eating.

Julie, Landon (niece Lizzy’s boyfriend), Lizzy, Teer (Jim’s sis’ husband), Jim’s mom, Jim and his sis, Sandy. Jim’s brother, Tracy, and our daughter, Tessa. I’m kicking myself for not fixing that table cloth on the table better.

This was by far the coolest moment of the day. Our nephew, Jesse, is in Iraq. We got him online so he could talk to everyone. I truly thought the whole computer thing would freak Grandma H. out. She was cool with it. She was waving and blowing kisses at him. Then she did the coolest thing. She saluted him and said “I salute you”. Totally amazing.

A light moment with daughter-in-law Alicia and niece Liz.

Jim’s family. A loved one dies and yet a family goes on - minus one . That one is still there in our hearts. Jim’s dad was quite a guy. He has been watching over us for 13 years now. I guess we’ll always miss him.

We pulled a stupid trick. We waited until the end of the day to try to get a family picture. Everyone was totally beat. I am proud of each and every one of these little tykes. And I am in awe that they are part of my life.

Our little Anna Rose hung in there with us as long as she could. It didn't take more than 5 minutes to take the pictures, but she was not in the mood for this photo op to begin with. As sad as she looks here, she is only weary because of a wonderful day. I know I often felt like she did over the past week and yet I wouldn’t have changed a single thing. I love my family.

Did you notice that I didn’t even mention food in this post? It was all great! But I didn’t think to take a single picture of food, and all of y’all know what is served at Thanksgiving.

This past week has been a wild ride.