Thanksgiving this year wasn't anything to hoot and holler about. After all, if I had my way, all of my greatest Pinterest visions would all come together to culminate in a beautiful array of noteworthy table decor and Martha-glistening food for my dream Thanksgiving. My mother in law does a fantastic job and even makes centerpieces and about twice as much food as we do on my side of the family. But ours is usually rushed together with paper plates and too much shoveling our faces in silence to even engage in a conversation of gratitude....BUT one full of love and togetherness. And it's ours. There is something so comforting about family members getting together to enjoy good food that all of the fancy stuff doesn't even matter.
Well, maybe one day it will when my kids are grown and I have nothing else to do but plan a pretty holiday meal with all that spare time!
We ended up having my side of the family over for Thanksgiving. I wasn't well prepared, to say the least. It was a last minute decision so that I didn't have to haul the kids anywhere by myself since Erik was scheduled to work. So I didn't print any cute decor or set up any nice place settings. But I made food, got the house cleaned, was able to get all the kids bathed and dressed and almost...ALMOST finished doing my hair before people showed up. Erik ended up saving the day and getting called off from work and that was the best Thanksgiving gift of all!
Here's the gorgeous unfinished hair I was talking about...hot.
I decided to be weird and snapped some food shots. There are 2 must-have traditions in our family on Thanksgiving.
#1. My Green Bean Casserole (with LOADS of bacon)
#2. Our Hale Family Spinach casserole (which Lindsey has been assigned to the last couple of years and she is a pro)
I know what you're thinking...spinach casserole sounds (and looks) gross. But it is SO not. It's loaded with butter and cream cheese topped with parmesan & Ritz crushed up. It is always the first thing gone.
Unfortunately I forgot to snap a shot of the spinach casserole. But here's the rest. My dad made an amazing turkey smothered in bacon.
There's a saying I like to use in my home and I use it a LOT.
"We just can't have nice pictures, can we?"
As hilarious as this little photo bomber is in the picture, I couldn't be more grateful and proud as I'm looking at what I have surrounding me on this holiday. Once a single girl, thinking she knew who she was for 25 years and now my heart is full and I'm amazed at what God has surrounded me with.
And more blessings. Sisters. I once said that I would love to have 3 girls one day because that's what I grew up with and it was such a blessing and a blast. Instead of inserting "be careful what you wish for" here, I'm going to say God hears us and answers our prayers! Look what wishes can make :)
We enjoyed a wonderful time with our family and we were even lucky enough to have Dian (Lindsey's mom) come spend Thanksgiving with us too. We're so grateful that she is family too because we love having her in our lives.
Our mom was in Texas celebrating Thanksgiving and probably having a lot more fun than us! Holidays aren't the same without getting to see ALL of your family but we're gradually learning these hard lessons of adulthood and growing families. Maybe one day we'll have it all figured out. For now, I'm grateful to still live in a state where we have any family at all because we may lose that in a couple of years.
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