Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we went to Mom's, which means ALOT of people and ALOT of food. Mom is one of 6, and not even half of everyone showed up, and there were 37 people there. I just love seeing my family. And, an added bonus, Gigi and Granddaddy joined us this year. I was so excited that Jon's family is no longer HIS family or my side of the family is no longer MY family. . . that they are both of our families. . . . the two becoming one. Just does my heart so good.

After our bellies were full, all the kiddos wanted to ride on Papa's golf cart trails. He's such a trooper.
After gabbing with my cousins for awhile, I noticed Jon and Alec were missing. Where oh where could my boys be?
In the car AWAY from all the people. . . checking out the Black Friday ads. They were CAUGHT!!!!

Mom, Gigi, and Grandaddy on Mom's front porch.
My cousin Theron married a girl from Japan, Satomi. They have 2 precious girls that Ash and Hanna always look forward to playing with. This year they kept asking me, "Are those Japanese girls going to be there?" I so wish we got to see each other more. I know our girls would be great friends!
See the lady on the far left? That is Aunt Josie. Well, Hanna made Aunt Josie's entire day. Leading up to Thanksgiving Hanna would tell me, "I sure hope that Aunt Josie lady will bring her red velvet cake." I was shocked that Hanna remembered the red velvet cake. I was even MORE shocked that she remembered who made it. I didn't even know Hanna knew who Aunt Josie is. Well, I told Mom, Mom told Granny and told her she had to call Aunt Josie and tell her. Aunt Josie was thrilled that Hanna remembered her. I made sure to tell Hanna to be nice when Aunt Josie was giving her hugs. Anyone who knows my Hanna knows why I said this. . .*wink*wink*
Here's the smorgasbord of food
and my family is FULL of good southern cooks
Here's the red velvet cake, absolutely delicious!

I hung out here most of the time. . . with my cousins Lori, Jessica, and Heather. Heather ran the 1/2 marathon in Savannah that I ran. I loved catching up with my cousins. Again, I just wish we all saw one another more. I was glad for our time together.
Grandaddy was C-R-A-C-K-I-N-G me up. To say he LOVES sweets is an understatement. Every time I saw him he was getting ANOTHER dessert. Seriously, he must have visited the dessert section at least 7 times. I was giddy when I caught him on camera.
Here is me and my love. I love him so much!
Grandpa, Granny, and Mama. I tease mom because she goes by their house every morning, and when she walks in the door Granny says the same thing to her, "You want an egg?" Mama goes by and makes her bed for her. I have such a wonderful Mama!

Thanksgiving didn't end there when everyone left. Oh, me, Mom, Ash, and Hanna had some serious business to attend to. Stay tuned tomorrow for more!

Father's Day

I talked with my dad earlier in the week, and this year he really wanted to get together for Father's Day. Sometimes he acts as if he could care less. However, lately I can tell his heart is softer than normal. Melissa and I, along with the rest of the family (Grandmama and Aunts/Uncles included) took Dad out to eat Saturday night.

I was so encouraged. . . my Aunt Wanda sent me a post via Facebook and told me Daddy had a good time. I will not stop praying for him. . .

Sunday was a day to celebrate the MOST important man (other than Jesus) in my life. . . my sweet husband. What a blessed woman and mom I am to have a sweet man like Jon. I told him in his card that I gave him that I'm the luckiest girl in the world because I have him. . .

Originally the kiddos and I wanted to serve him breakfast in bed. We were going to do this on Saturday because every Sunday Jon does his long run with Doug. However, Jon ended up spending Fri. night at a house he and Greg G. are working on, so the breakfast in bed option was totally OUT!!!

Instead, I made his favorite, breakfast casserole and I even broke down and bought the ever-expensive Tropicana OJ for him (one his faves).

Well, for his special day, the kids and I decided we would give him memories rather than a tangible gift. I told the kiddos. . . it had to be reasonably priced, and it had to be something Jon would want to do. . . not what they wanted to do.

Hanna - a day at a local water park (this one just has 2 slides, but she knows her Dad loves water parks)

Ashley - a Braves game. . . the $5 seats :)

Alec - a trip to any movie Jon wants to see.

One-on-one time with each of our children is just precious and it is something both Jon and I fail to do often. I thought this would be a great opportunity to make time for some special time together. From me, Jon got a box of tilapia. . . that is what he requested, so that's what he got!!! He's dieting right now :)

Grandaddy went to church with us. We really tried to convince him to go out to eat with us, but he wanted to get back home to Gigi (who has a pinched nerve in her back right now). We tried to be persistent with him, but he clearly didn't want to go out to eat. We took him home and then went to a Japanese steakhouse. After stuffing ourselves silly, we went home, and this is what Jon wanted to do.

He works so very hard these days (flipping plus a full-time job) that getting rest is a luxury for him.

That evening we went over to Grandaddy's and took him his Father's Day present. . . snickers, a coke, and circus peanuts. He annihilated that bag of circus peanuts in less than 20 minutes.

Fathers, what a blessing from the Lord!

P.S. And for my stepdad, we got with him during the week.. . I couldn't forget him. He's very special to me as well!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was such a busy day. . . so busy I forgot to take pictures of alot of family.

We ate lunch at Mamas and my Granny and all Mom's brothers and sisters, and my cousins were all there. It was a house full.

Mom asked me to say the blessing. I'm one of those long prayers.

Jon texted our friend/pastor. "A house of about 30 people, the smell of Thanksgiving in the air, Michele was asked to bless the food. She preaches the Gospel as she prays over the food. She will be removed from the list next year." Hee! Hee! I am a long prayer :)

I had so much fun visiting with family I don't get to see. . . so much, I didn't take any pictures. Shucks!

We then went to my Grandmama's. My Dad has some kind of upper respiratory something so he stayed outside. Y'all he looks really, really bad. He's very heavy on my heart right now. I've never seen him look this bad.

However, here's a picture of my Uncle Ben and Aunt Sharon.

My Aunt Wanda. A lot of people say I remind them of her. We both love to cut the fool and we both LOVE to laugh!

My cousin Brian and his wife and their newest edition. Such a sweet, smilely baby.

I sure do love these two guys.

Grandmama and all the great grandchildren. . . only one person missing from this picture.

. . . Papa.


Saturday, we went to eat lunch with Gigi and Grandaddy. Poor Gigi has the shingles. I tried to talk her into letting Holly and I do all the cooking. She wasn't going to have it. Again, I totally forgot to take pictures. We all had a really good time visiting with one another.