Thanksgiving 2011 - Part IV

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we just hung out at Alex's parents' house with his brothers and sister and my sisters-in-law as well as my mother-in-law's mom, sweet Grandma J. It was low-key and relaxed, and we just watched movies, drank cocoa, stayed warm, napped and cooked while we chatted and spent time together. Dresden roped quite a few innocent bystanders into playing with him...

Playing pool with Grandpa

Playing "car" (which consisted of him being pushed around in circles in the basement no less than 50 times per person) with anyone who was unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time!

Playing "talk" with the awesome dinosaur set his grandparents got him

Playing "talk" with legos with Uncle Nick

On Thanksgiving morning all the ladies convened in the kitchen to begin cooking for the day. We started with the preparation of the big breakfast, and worked on Thanksgiving meal prep in the meantime.

Grandma giving Dresden his bread-tearing job

Me and Tracy peeling potatoes. I look like a mess, please excuse that fact.

Dough Boy

Sarah and Tracy making Thanksgiving Day cooking magic!

Tracy and I laugh a lot whenever we are together; I love that!

Apple Betty - she was DELICIOUS! ;-)

Cinnamon Rolls

Part of the the Cooking Crew (Where'd you go, Sarah?!)

The breakfast spread...

Little man in his Turkey shirt! Same one from last year, sewn onto a bigger shirt. Thanks Grammy!

The only picture we have of Thanksgiving night is of the beautifully-set table. 

The food was delicious; an amazing meal, with one of the juiciest turkeys I've ever had! Afterward, we all had to go around and say what we were thankful for, and of course, because I am a humongous emotional crybaby about EVERYTHING, I cried the entire time everyone else was saying what they were thankful for, and then of course SOBBED by the time it was my turn. If the family didn't already think I am insane (they do, lol!) they know it now. I couldn't help it. Hearing people be sentimental and grateful just gets to me, and I was a mess. Plus, this has not been the easiest year for us, sort of a continuation of the not-so-easy years we've had for the last three or so, and so finding things to be thankful for can be a bit harder at times, yet, when you find them, the things you do have, even in the hard times, they become, they are, so much sweeter and so much more worth giving thanks for. So that is where my heart was this year, as I wept in front of my gigantic family of in-laws at the beautiful table. I'm going for a no-cry Thanksgiving round-table next year - no whammies!!! :-D

Only a couple more days of Chicago posts! I guess it wasn't nearly as overwhelming as I anticipated; silly me!

Love,

Cassie