Thanksgiving & a scrawny thankful tree

Someone please tell me how it is already the second week of DECEMBER?! November flew by & here we are just a couple weeks away from celebrating another holiday. I am not feeling too wordy at the moment so this should be short & sweet with possibly more pictures than words ; ) 

For the holiday, we gathered at Grandma Shirley's house with the Loftin side of the family. There were 26 people & it was fun & loud! We went from hosting multiple Thanksgivings to bringing a side dish this year....that was lovely minus not having all the delicious leftovers! Our contribution was "kid friendly" & a straight off Pinterest kind of arrangement. I let everyone know to avoid eating the turkey eye balls so as not to ingest Sharpie Marker. 

The rest of the food was delicious too...

Sadly, I barely took any pictures of the grownups & stuck mostly with the great grandkids. They are hard to resist when it comes to photographs or kisses. Kelly oversaw the three little guys. Luke is just a few months younger than Owen & Anson.

The four "big kids" at on their fancy plates at the kids table. Landry was promoted from the floor since she is about to turn two. Aubrey is about 2 months younger than Eloise & had a great time playing with our girls. 

We spent a lot of time in the backyard with a bounce house & swings. The kids are so happy out there & I think the adults enjoyed watching them play while visiting. I always love pictures of my short kids with their tall uncles.

Owen & Anson were little stinker pies when it came to getting a picture of the two of them together during our family photo session on the bridge so I was happy to get this one even though they were not looking at the camera.

and all four looking to the side with random looks on their faces....gotta be thankful for what you got right?

Then it got really exciting when we tried to snap one of seven kids five & under with four being under the age of two...haha!

We decided it might be helpful to add the mommies...

As soon as they all broke free of their mothers, they ran to the swings & were all screaming & crying (minus Char) thinking that someone else would get to go first. We looked at Uncle Scott & said "alright, you have fun out here!" He then began to cry ; ) It was pretty funny. We intervened & helped everyone take turns appropriately.

Overall, it was just wonderful to hop in the car & drive 15 minutes to my grandmothers house & see all our family. We are thankful for those we shared a meal with. The next evening we went to Aunt Debbie's & Uncle Joe's house with the Ellis clan & shared a Mexican feast, lots of laughter & playtime with cousin Emma whom Eloise now claims is her best friend & "horsie" since that was the game of choice for two days straight. Debbie, Joe & Emma joined the Loftin family the day prior & Eloise made claims on her horse. On Saturday we had Bob & Jeannine over while Robby fired up the smoker. It was a day of sitting outside on & off while beginning to deal with runny noses & coughs times four. Jeannine & I made a run to CVS for meds for all the sickies plus a run by Starbucks for some holiday beverages. We enjoyed brisket & pulled pork over the weekend then stocked up the freezer with another 14 delish BBQ meals. What a fun three days straight of family time!

Onto our scrawny tree. I can say I know what our problem was, I did not prepare all the leaves ahead of time so when I ran out, we quit until I got around to cutting, punching & stringing more. I hated that we missed out on adding the rest of the leaves but we still talked about many things we are thankful during this time of year (and always).

One fun thing about this year is that Charlotte loves to write & draw pictures. For day #10 she she drew a hopscotch game onto her leaf since we had made one that day. I decided to add the words "Fun things to do while trapped at home." The list of all the things we have done at home to make things a bit more exciting is not super long but the good memories stick out : )

Here she is enjoying the "hopping" of the Hopscotch...

Then one afternoon during rest time she asked if she could use my buttons & this is what she came up with...

Onto sweet Eloise who loves to "draw" as well & has a very detailed explanation of her masterpieces said quite candidly one morning "headbands, unicorns, dolphins, God & everything." The she about had a panic attack when I wrote on top of her drawing.

We are still reading our Jesus Storybook Bible & when we finish we just go back to the beginning. We are thankful that Charlotte is learning the truth "that God saves us." This bible does a great job pointing out God being the hero of every story & not the typical "human hero."

Another day it was "New friends" but really it should have said "Friends- old & new." My friend Jessica who I have known since elementary school lives nearby & called to see if she could stop by for a visit & bring some delicious Taco Soup for our dinner. The meal was AMAZING & her company even more wonderful. Her little girl Hadley played with my bunch & we caught up as well as we could with some background noise. This week we also had a family over from our Gospel Community group. They have five children with the oldest being six & youngest a newborn. We shared dinner together & went to bed that night saying that we felt the most "normal" since we left Florida. We were used to a full house at least once a week & usually more. That has been a difficult transition for us & we were beyond thankful for the Blanchard family.

A few more: "Freedom"- Rob, "God always wins His battles"- Lauren, "Peace"- Charlotte, "That Jesus died" Eloise.

I also had two little guys that are speedy climber that liked to remove the leaves, knock the tree over or take a bite of the fresh fruit. We are thankful for those busy boys reminding us of God's care for us.

What a month of sharing what we are thankful for & looking forward to celebrating the birth of Christ. Talk about something to be thankful for!