Thankful.

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! We had a whole mess of people over at our house to celebrate our day of gratitude and gluttony. Nineteen people, to be exact. This was especially ambitious given I had (very routine) surgery on Tuesday. Thank God for my mom who flew in from Alaska.

My grandma's first reaction was, of course, "Where are you going to put all of those people?!" Well, we cleared out our formal living room and rented some chairs. It ended up working out pefectly.

Some pics of our Thanksgiving table.




It was wonderful to have so many people in our home. It felt like the holidays when I was little with all of the family and friends piling in.

And, this was the first turkey I have ever cooked! Well, correction: We cooked two turkeys! (I couldn't risk running out of turkey!). Luckily, dinner turned out well, and I didn't burn anything or have any major snafus.


Per family tradition, we had holiday crackers. As usual, all of our holiday pictures are of us in those ridiculous paper crowns. (Remember last Christmas?)

Bug and Anthony.


Mom and Grandparents.


The whole fan-dam-ily (and some dear friends).


This Thanksgiving, I feel especially grateful for Josh, my sister, my parents, grandparents, and my dear friends. With all of the turmoil in our country and economy, I feel blessed to have my job (despite how stressful it might be at times) and especially blessed and hopeful for our new president.

And, now with Thanksgiving behind us, you know what that means... It's officially Christmastime! Let the present wrapping, light hanging, and carol singing begin!