I love Thanksgiving. It's such a special time of year for the gathering of family and friends, delicious food, the making of new memories, and the beginning of the holiday season! This year I am a mother and I am extra thankful for this new role. Chris and I had a special treat this year. Chris has five brothers from his hometown of Portland Oregon. Brandon, Dustin, and Nick are attending school in Iowa so they made the loong 13 hour drive to come see their nephew for the first time. Chris, Mom, Kal-el and I couldn't not of been happier to have them spend Thanksgiving with us. Hopefully next time all five of them can make the trip. They arrived late Tuesday night and stayed until early Sunday morning. Wednesday, Chris and the boys came in to see me at work. They drove the little smart car around and apparently had a photo shoot with it to! After I got off we all got ready and went over to a spaghetti supper hosted by one of the Chris's fight crew friends. We played pong and had a really great time. I of course had the shot of a lifetime. lolThursday morning is Thanksgiving and by the time it arrived I was officially ready to kill some food. There was entirely too much delicious food and I'm angry with myself for not taking a picture. We ate at Aunt Shanes this year. Her dog Scout is an adorable very lovable little Yorkie but for some strange reason Kal-el freaks out when Scout trots by him. I think it may be b/c he is used to such big dogs at home . After we were all stuffed beyond belief we sat down for a very fun board game called Apples to Apples. Someone *Leah* actually hide the game from me b/c games with our family are always over the top dramatic and someone always ends up not having a clue whats going on. Lucky Lea fessed up and the game of choice is kind of fool proof! Even for our bunch. Its a game of comparisons where each player gets a turn being a judge and lays down a card with an adjective on it. All of the other players then lay down one of their seven noun cards that they feel best describes the card on the table. The judge then picks the word they they personally feel fits best with the card on the table. Its a hilarious game b/c the winning card is subject to the judges objective opinion. Apparently Helen Keller is a fake according to the first card play lol :) We all had a great time.Later that night Chris took the boys and I to see New Moon. I was getting on every ones nerves with my talk of Edwards swagger. They thought he was pale and gross and the ones that actually admitted liking the movie were team Jaboc all the way. Dustin looked a little miserable during the two hours of vampire romance or at least he wanted us to think he was :) After the movie we called it a night and headed home for ...you guessed it yummo leftovers!Friday was pretty non eventful. Chris had to work all day and I stayed home with our guests. I had several fun suggestions for how we could spend our day. Just a few of the things on the list were going shopping with me, going to a bookstore to read, watching me get my nails done, playing more board games. I know you didnt see this coming put I totally got shot down. LOL So we opted to relax at the house so the boys could get caught up on football and I cuddled with the super baby. After hours on end of this we took a drive to go see Chris bear at work.Saturday Poppa, Chris, Jack(Poppa friend and church member), and the boys were supposed to have some Alabama style fun down at the local shooting range. I was told to stay home by Chris and Poppa b/c this was such a manly sort of outing lol whateva..They were all just petrified of my mad busting caps skillz. So they left me :( Unfortunately after they made the long drive and started unloading their guns they were ran off by a psyco park ranger who is sure to receive employee of the year for his bravery in saving the day from the armed and dangerous boys with no fishing license which apparently you need to shoot. So he shewed them away. Sounds like they still had a southern experience to me! We finished up the day and night with homade cheese dips, more board games, and a late night run to Sonic. Geez I beat Brandon, Dustin, and Nick think all we do here is eat! When we got back the boys had to start packing up b/c they had to be on the road at 5 am. I was going to try to get up with Chris to wish them a safe trip but I didnt make it. So I just send a be safe text. Very 21st century lol!Sunday we slept in and unfortunately didnt make it for church. After we recuperated I helped Mom put up our Christmas tree. We got through it without a single cuss word and I must say it looked beautiful. I was eager to see Kal-el's reaction to his first Christmas tree but he was a little dismissive of all of our efforts and seemed more interested in his little toys.My most fond memory of this Thanksgiving is my family. We always hold hands and form a circle for our Thanksgiving prayer before we eat. This year I thought of what I was so grateful for in each person. There's my grandfather Poppa standing there so proud the most loving, good man of earth. My inspiration. The backbone of our family holding Nannies hand who has shown unwavering love for me since the time I was born and who is so tender and kind in all her ways. She holds Mothers hand. A hand that I see is now filled with so much strength and perseverence. I'm thankful that she has always been my number one supporter and biggest fan, she believed in me when no one else did. I love her so much.I couldnt of hand picked a more more perfect mother for me. I hold Chris's hand. Its a hand I know well b/c it cradles mine so often. Easily twice the size of mine. My soul mate and my best friend. I'm thankful for his love and support and his ability to understand me which is not always easy to do .You have my heart Chris Bear.Then there is Aunt Shane. I have always admired her kindness and faith. She is such a fine example of a believer. She is so strong in what she belives but she always leads by example. I'm a grateful to her for so many things. She is always there for me if need to talk and was so helpful during my preganncy. Uncle Raymond holds her hand. Its really hard to belive this he hasnt been in our family since day one. Raymond is a good man and is always so helpful and willing to lend an ear or give good advice. I am very very thankful for his since of humor. Even though I think we are on a lonely island with loving puns! Zach is my first cousin who is really the closest thing that I have to a brother. I am thankful for his intelligence and his abiltiy to have deep conversions with me when everyone else heres crickets chirping lol. I adnore his synical since of humor. Zach holds Leahs hand. They have been together for some time now and here recently got married. She too seems like she has always been with us. I thankful for her soft spoken insight and endearing childlike qualities. Shes a precious girl. Aunt Vicki is part of the cirlce I have always been grateful for creavtive and outgoing qualities. She is so much fun and I have so many fond memories of her from my childhood. She stands beside Harrold is the new member of family and I am grateful that he and Aunt Vicki have found what they were looking for in each other. And finally the special treat this year was having Chris's bothers there to share with us. I already consider them family. I grateful for the extra life and exuberance they breathed into this special time of year. They are so much fun and they each have their own amazing qualities. Brandon can relate so well to people, Dustin is very true to himself , and Nick is fun loving and endearing. We had an amazing Thanksgiving!
