We had such a great Thanksgiving holiday this year...spending time with family, reflecting on how much we truely have to be thankful for, the amazing Thanksgiving dinner (and the not so amazing weight I am sure I gained), playing games, and just relaxing and enjoying a break from normal routine. I love it all. We had a jammed packed few days.
For the past two years, Aaron and Kobe have gone to a church downtown to serve a Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless people the night before Thanksgiving. This year we decided it would be good to include Maddie, Jaiden and Kya. For so many of us this time of year is so wonderful, but for a lot of people its an extremely sad time of year. With all we have, sometimes its so easy to forget how incredibly blessed we are. That life isn't like that for everyone. And since God has blessed us, how can we reach out to someone else and bless them? We find that its so easy for us to just get lost in our own world and plans and never even give a second thought to others. So as a family we are getting involved in a few different things on a regular basis. My heart is that serving would be first nature to the kids. That they never 'get stuck' in an 'all about me' mentality and that they see Aaron and I live a life of service and not just 'talk' about it.
So on Wed evening we all loaded up in the van and drove down town. It was such a great time together and the kids worked so hard. It was only our crew and the 2 guys that put it on that were helping, so they really did put the kids to work! They helped prepare the food, set the tables, served the food and cleaned up. Aaron and I were so proud of them. It was great to see them serving others, meeting new people and genuinely enjoying themselves. We had a great time hanging out and talking with people. It was so fun to see how the kids responded to it. They were so excited in the car on the way home talking about the evening and different things that happened. It was so neat to see how great it made them feel to serve others and see just how much fun they had.
Since there was no school, their cousins got to spend the night with us, for which they were all so excited about. I love the holidays when you just feel like their is that break from 'real life' and you just enjoy being together with no real agenda. It was a nice relaxing evening filled with games, hot chocolate, candy canes and even some Super Nanny (we all love that show :).
We love JoJo!!!!
Playing games at the table. Clearly, Kensi was enjoying herself. :)
The next morning Aaron left early for week (he had to work 7-3p...boo!hiss!) and the kids and I all got ready and peeled a ton of potatoes while watching The Macy's Day parade. Even after all these years, that is still one of my favorite things to do on T-day. Then we all piled in the van and headed to Mimi and Papa's.
It was so nice to have a whole day set aside just to spend with family. It is such a blessing to live so close to all of our family. I love that the kids get to grow up with their cousins, aunts/uncles and grandparents as part of their every day life. Sometimes we take it for granted, but I am always reminded when we are all together that it is such a HUGE blessing to be completely surrounded by family.
The food was absolutely wonderful, as always.
Dinner Time! It was all so delish! Yum.
The kid's table had a new crew this year. Kobe, Maddie, Jaiden and Kya have graduated to the bigger table and Kensi and Parker took over the kids table. And next year they will be joined by Roman and Gianna. Ca-razy! These kids are growing so fast!
Some random pics from our day...
Uncle Shaney lovin' on Jaiden.
Dad, Kim and Mom. I think this is such a great picture of all of them.
And here is one of Mom and Dad with their favorite daughter. :) j/k
Kobe and some of his girls. They were getting pics taken from every side;)
Just relaxing after that big dinner.
Jamie-Jam posing for the camera.
Papa with two lovely ladies.
I love this picture of Kobe and his smile with his missing teeth! I think he looks so precious in the "aukward" stage.
And we finished the evening by playing a game of Boggle with the kids! We had so much fun. And it was fun to see all the words they came up with. Very cute.
What a great holiday it was! It was nice to (almost) all be together. We sure did miss having little Joshy and Cortney with us though(they were with her family).
And thats a wrap for T-day '08.
Yay for popsicle weather!!!!!!
What a crew!
