A family Thanksgiving

Our tradition has been to spend Thanksgiving with my sister in the mountains, now with three exceptions: six years ago when we got married, two years ago when I was pregnant with Natalie, and this year when I am definitely too pregnant to travel. It has been such a great experience to spend those Thanksgivings with Tom's family (as well as last year, when we spent it with Tom's family AND visited my sister the next day). Tom's family all lives in Southern California, but we're still pretty spread out, so we usually just see everyone on Easter and Thanksgiving.

Leanne and George once again did a marvelous job hosting, and we enjoyed seeing everyone, although it's hard to have a conversation with 32 people while watching to make sure Lukas and Natalie are behaving and also enjoying themselves. I think both of our kids were a little overwhelmed by the number of people, the not-completely-familiar setting, and the overall excitement, but they eventually settled down.

Here are some pics of the wonderful day: Natalie making friends with her new Cabbage Patch Doll, courtesy of Aunt Patrice (with my belly competing for space and Leif and Ashley in the background); Kaytlin playing with Natalie; Lukas and Kaylie playing with the train tracks (with me in the background); Ryan showing Natalie how to play with the trains.

It was a very memorable Thanksgiving for us. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family.