Thanksgiving At Grandma and Poppo's House

On Thanksgiving Day we picked up my grandmother and went to my parent's house for a big Thanksgiving lunch. My cousin Jane was there and David's parents were able to join us as well. It is such a blessing to have family near. I honestly cannot even fathom what it would be like to not spend holidays with my family.

My mom and Dad and Jane had prepared a smorgasbord of yummy food. Grammy and I brought some menu items too. Decisions, decisions - it was definitely one of those try-a-little-of-everything type of situations!
Here are my cuties at the kid's table - which I sat at as well. Some people just never grow up!

When I first tried to get pics of the boys, Benjamin made his Popeye face...

and Nathan made his mean face. They did decide to smile nice for me a little later.

Notice the fall themed window clings behind Nathan. He and Benjamin had so much fun helping Grandma decorate for fall by placing and replacing those in the windows over and over again.

Here's my grandmother with her great grandsons behind her.

David snapped this pic of most of the fam sitting down...

and I got everyone in this shot.

After lunch David worked on putting a new CD drive in my dad's computer.

The rest of the family relaxed and enjoyed the antics of my sons in the living room.

Here's Nathan in his bean bag chair in Poppo's chair controlling the remote.

The boys got out the Legos and built with them for a while.

We snapped this nice group shot before Grammy and Grandpop left to go home. I absolutely love shots like this. I hope I can impress on my boys just how blessed they are to be so loved and treasured by the three generations before them.My grandmother turns 93 next month! I pray that I am doing as well as she is at that age.

Here the boys are piled in Poppo's lap after getting their jammies on.

What a fabulous Thanksgiving Day! We truly are bountifully blessed - hence the name of the blog.

Thanksgiving At Great Grandmom's House

For as far back as I can remember it has been my family's tradition to spend Thanksgiving with my grandmom (my Dad's mom) my aunt and my cousin Jane. Growing up that always meant five hours in the car driving to her house. I'm so glad that she moved into a retirement village here in Abilene back in October of 2004 so we can see her all year long. For Thanksgiving each year since Grandmom has lived here Cousin Jane has come to visit us. Cousin Jane usually arrives at my parent's house on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and then we all have dinner at Grandmom's house that evening. Here are a few pics from this year's Thanksgiving Eve dinner.

Benjamin is holding up one of his favorite foods in the whole wide world - a pickle! They are a great thing to bribe him with to get him to eat his sandwich. After dinner Cousin Jane, Dad, Poppo, and the boys all piled on the couch. Benjamin has my phone (a Blackberry Curve) and Poppo is looking with Dad and Nathan at Dad's new Blackberry Bold. The Bold is pretty cool but I'm quite content with my Curve. I've had it since January and am just now figuring out how to do some things on it. Gratefully I am married to my Blackberry support line.Nathan is doing so good on his reading these days. He amazes me. I know that with many of his books he is so familiar with them that is a combination of reciting and reading but quite often he is really picking out the words and reading them. Too cool!
The boys have a box of toys to play with at Great Grandmom's house. Grandma keeps it stocked for them. It includes these big building blocks...and a Thomas the Tank Engine flannel graph board. Both boys have quite a repertoire of songs they sing these days. On this particular evening we captured Nathan on video singing the "AWANA Cubbies Song" and...

Benjamin singing "Popeye The Sailor Man." Okay, so it is actually more of a duet with Nathan. Toot, toot!

Note: We spent Thanksgiving Day at my parent's house but that will be the subject of my next post. Right now I'm just showcasing all the pics from Great Grandmom's.

On the Friday after Thanksgiving the boys and I ate lunch with Great Grandmom in the dining room at her retirement village. (Dad had to work.) She enjoys showing off her family (especially the super cute great grandboys) to all her friends.

Here we are all enjoying a walk back to Great Grandmom's house from the dining hall on this beautiful fall day.

Benjamin will sometimes skip his afternoon nap but not on this day. Grandma's lap was just too comfortable.

Too precious!

After dinner Friday night I gave the boys a bath in Great Grandmom's guest bath, their first ever in that location. They liked the hand held sprayer. Splish splash!

After bath I snapped another pic of everyone on the couch. (Dad had joined us after he got off work.)

I love this pic of my guys!

Before we left we got video of the boys wishing everyone a "Happy Thanksgiving!"

Benjamin is one bouncy boy! He says his "Happy Thanksgiving!" but he doesn't do it standing still.

I'm Dreaming of a White...Thanksgiving?!

You just never know what kind of weather you're going to have in Texas. One of the most beautiful snowfalls I've ever seen came earlier today - Thanksgiving Day. Pretty crazy huh? Maybe we'll get a repeat for Christmas. Hey, a girl can wish. Our luck it will probably be Easter.

David's brother's family wasn't able to join us for Thanksgiving dinner this year so David's parents invited my family (my parents, grandmother, and cousin) to join us for lunch today. It was great! I missed getting a picture of everyone around the table eating lunch but I did snap a few of the boys playing afterwards. Here they are in the 'kids room' with the blinds up on the window so they could watch the beautiful snow falling down.
Can we say mischief? Oh my.Here's my grandmother, who read volumes to me as a child, reading to my son - too cool. She's reading him one of David's favorite books he had a a child. I love how history repeats itself.

Benjamin was in desperate need of a nap and Grammy's lap sufficed as the perfect place to crash.

Nathan never settled down for a nap during the day so he was snoozing as soon as we pulled out of the driveway at Grammy and Grandpop's house.
Benjamin was soon out too, The boys look so alike sacked out in their seats like this.
I feel so blessed to have my extended family so close in proximty to my immediate family. I love the generational influence in my boys' lives and in mine. We are truly blessed.

So we Your people and the sheep of Your pasture will give thanks to You forever;

To all generations we will tell of Your praise.

Psalm 79:13