Happy Thanksgiving...late:)

Thanksgiving has come and gone already so I'm a little late in my Happy Thanksgiving greetings! We had a great TG this year. Our family celebrated the day at our house this year yikes! I have always wanted to host family celebrations and had hoped we could do it while most of our family lived close by. I got the opportunity this year to have 12 for TG dinner...and I quickly found out that I definitely don't have the serving pieces to accommodate a large crowd. We had a great time anyway and everyone chipped in with the food and the serving/eating plates:) My aunt and uncle from Georgia and their two kids (one's in NY the other lives in DC) plus Granny came over. My parents and little brother graciously came from Richmond for the day to help and prepare (I couldn't have done ANY of it without the help of my mom and dad!! I am definitely thankful for them). Then, we have a girl who rents out our basement apartment and since she had to work at the hospital TG evening, she couldn't go home, so we invited her and her fiance to join us. She was one of the nurses who looked after Granny when she was in the hospital, so we will consider her family;) The day was full of fun and laughter and everyone was exhausted by the end of the evening...or was that just me;) Here are some pictures we captured from the evening:

Our attempt at a family picture...Alley acting all of her two years of age...she had had enough:)

A family group shot
Granny, my cousin Mary Tanner and our renter, Leslie getting ready to eat

Alley all ready to enjoy her TG feast...if I recall, she didn't eat any of it! Very rare for a girl who eats anything and everything! She was way too busy:)

Bruce and Dad partaking in the buffet

The guys were banished to the living room to eat and watch football while the girls sat at the dining room table...as you can see they were completely heart-broken...ha!

alley having fun with daddy

We usually top off TG day with the putting up of our Christmas tree, but Andy had basketball practice TG night (partly the reason for us hosting TG). So the tree had to wait until the next day to make an appearance. It must be a holiday, because Alley woke up the next morning sick...blah. We spent the morning doing laundry and changing our clothes constantly...I did finally get smart after the third change and I wrapped Alley in a towel. She promptly fell asleep after that and when she woke up she was a new person. When Andy came home from basketball we just relaxed and put up all our decorations. Alley has become very weary of new things (this is a drastic change from the girl who was so out going) and was very cautious of the Christmas tree (plus any yard blow-up character, and older men - especially if they have facial hair, so no Santa this year!). To finish up the evening, my aunt, uncle, cousins and me and Andy went to see a movie...The Blindside - it was great! It was a great Thanksgiving and a great day after. We look forward to relaxing the rest of the weekend and preparing for Christmas! I hope everyone had a wonderful celebration!