Thanksgiving

Since we returned from Disney the Sunday before Thanksgiving, we made a decision not to travel for Thanksgiving but instead do a lunch at our place.  Nona and Big Daddy came over Wednesday night, and the girls were quite happily surprised the next morning!  We did most of the cooking early in the week so that we could just hang out on Thursday and be a bit lazy. Ashley agreed to take family pictures for Tom and Lenae and their two boys, Thomas and Brian (our other guests for Thanksgiving lunch) - hence the practice photos and the ottoman outside.

Eden Brooks decided that morning that she was big enough to pull back her own hair...

... and successfully put the ponytail holder in correctly ...

...and write her own name using mostly lower case letters. [Editor's Note: It's really almost to the point where I have to look at these writings twice to remember if I wrote or if E did]

The spread was too much for the number of people, but who can resist the variety? Ham, green beans and sauce, cornbread dressing, cornbread, squash casserole, broccoli salad, cole slaw with cranberries and poppy seed dressing, and iced tea.

While Lydia took a nap, Eden Brooks got some QT with her Nona and Big Daddy. Afterward, we went outside to take some pictures...

Lydia is going through this "please don't look at me phase" with certain people, one of whom is her Big Daddy. Of course, as soon as they were ready to head back to Mobile she was ready to give kisses.

Picture time was so much fun, Eden Brooks got in on the action, too.

After they left, Eden Brooks decided to make cards for all the November birthdays after Thanksgiving - Uncle Britton, Aunt Ashley, Big Daddy.

The cards give her a chance to practice writing words how they sound ... pretty impressive if you ask me!

This year we are thankful for our family and friends -- for those who came over and shared the day with us and for those in our thoughts that day.