Gratitude

 Quick, before its Christmas!  Time to remember Thanksgiving.

It was a wonderful week, Thanksgiving week.   Started the week off with a little bit of single parenting, as Nat finished up his conference in Denver.  Silver linings to the busyness of that:  1.  I appreciate all that Nat does, so very much, and 2.  I got to go in to work late and take Ivy to school to see her class do their "capstone presentations" (powerpoints of their animal research).  Ivy was so excited to show her work, though she had some finishing touches to put on...

Isn't she the cutest??

 Also enjoyed our annual Thanksgiving Feast with my students.  Gratitude has been hard to come by with this group of kids this  year, but at least the room cleans up well.

 The Wednesday before the holiday found us baking and prepping and cooking all day. I was busy frosting cookies, so the kids made their own breakfast.  And even shared with me!

 We hosted some friends for the day...

 Good times with slime were counterbalanced by the tragedy of a hawk attack that took the life of our sweet Tiny, everyone's favorite chicken.  We had some very upset little girls who could not go on with their day before she was buried.
Here are Ivy and Naomi being pallbearers.  Using a shovel. A touching ceremony was held graveside, where the following verbal exchange was overheard:
Lillian:  That f**king hawk.
Nat and Ivy: *Shocked look*
Naomi: (deadpan)  Yep, she said it.

Lillian summed up our thoughts well.

We raised a cake pop in Tiny's honor.

 Thanksgiving!  We packed up our autumn theme cookies and headed south.

 Games with our Florida cousins (so great to see them!)

 And a full table (4 actually) of 28 family members and so much food.

 Relaxing all afternoon (no one does it better than Winnie-girl)

 ... and lots of family photos.  Pat's family:

 And Jean's:

 And the whole crew.  So much love.

 Winter is wagging her tail with gratitude for this day, which was smooth as silk and delicious and happy from start to finish. Who could ask for a better holiday?

Not content with one perfect Thanksgiving, we decided to have ourselves a second one the very next day.  Thanksgiving Redux at our our place was just as full of deliciousness and family and fun as the original version, with a new new cast:  Steve and his family, Melinda and Will and the girls, and Gram, who'd been feeling poorly the day before.

 Also one very good looking turkey.

 The kids' table...

 ... and the grownups.  Dinner for 14 was a success and a lot of fun.  It's been a while since we've hosted a sit-down dinner for a crowd.

 Not to mention that the weather was stunning. 

 As were the homemade pies...

 We seem to have added Yankee Swap to our list of Thanksgiving traditions.  Here's the crew enjoying their new treasures after all the swapping insanity.  The kids *really* get into Yankee Swap.

 These four girls were perfect together.  They played an entire round of wits and wagers all on their own while the grownups enjoyed drinks and conversation.  Living the dream, I tell you.

Feeling full of gratitude indeed for our blessings this year, too many to count.  What a gift to have this time off and these people to spend it with.  My heart is full.