A Thanksgiving Full of Family

This year brought quite a few changes and some new traditions to our annual Thanksgiving celebration. Obviously, we missed Great Aunt Sissy (my grandmother's sister) who passed away shortly after Thanksgiving last year. In addition, we also missed my uncle, aunt, cousins, Lisa, and Tyson who celebrated up in Seattle this year. Fortunately, we'll see most of them on Christmas Eve.

The biggest tradition change this year was the location and turkey photo. For as long as I can remember, we've celebrated Thanksgiving at my uncle's house. Every year, the kids posed for a photo with Uncle G and the cooked turkey. Up until last year, even us (now much bigger kids) were in it as well as our children. This Thanksgiving that tradition transitioned. Here's the next generation of turkey photos. Our children and my dad (and mom) with the cooked bird.

The cousins had such a good time together, even though Cousin E looks like we're torturing him.The girls had fun playing with their American Girl dolls. The bigger boys set up an ambush for anyone who wanted to walk up the stairs. Baby Bear discovered his love of singing into a microphone.

Cousin M got her nails done. Do you like them? It's the new trend. (=Getting a photo of the five of us was much more work than it should have been. At least we got one shot that looks okay of everyone. It only took about twenty pictures and two cameras.

The cousins came up the day before Thanksgiving, so the kids had lots of playtime together.

Cousin M, Brother Bear, and Baby Bear in their "fort". Baby Bear loved being under it and spent most of the evening there. The two biggest kids had fun going on an adventure with a map. Fortunately, in the end, they found the treasure.

Little Momma M holding the two littlest ones. Baby Bear is almost a year older than his cousin E.