Thanksgiving with Family

What better way to spend Thanksgiving than with family!  We started the Thanksgiving weekend by traveling to Sparta to share Thanksgiving dinner with brother and sister-in-law, Jack and Pat.  What a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner Pat had prepared.  My favorites were the "little birds" - otherwise known as Cornish game hens, and the cooked apricots.  Pat says she is a rebel when it comes to including the cranberry sauce.  The apricots were indeed a refreshing new touch.  Best of all, everything was low fat, low carb and absolutely delicious!

Friday evening, we traveled down to Tullahoma for the 50th anniversary celebration of my 1st cousin, Ray and Ann, hosted by their son and daughter-in-law.  Now, it seems to me that these milestones are only for grandparents - I remember my own grandparents' golden wedding anniversary back in the 50s.  Can it be that my cousin is there already??   WOOPS!!  Guess I'm not that far behind - we celebrated our 42nd anniversary this year.  This comes in the category of "everybody else is getting old - not me"?!?  We had a really fun evening and Ray and Ann were surrounded by friends and family.  The meal was delicious, the conversation rich and warm.  We finished the evening with a champagne toast and wedding cake with the best frosting I have ever tasted.

Saturday was the day for Thanksgiving dinner with children and grandchildren.  Butch absolutely hit a home run with his 19-pound turkey a la Martha Stewart.  It was beautifully browned and REALLY moist.  Martha doesn't make it easy, but the result was fabulous.  Marci brought the broccoli casserole and the cheese grits (my mother's recipe), Jimmy prepared the sweet potatoes and Soeung made her favorite 7-layer salad.  I contributed the cranberry relish and we had chess pie and pecan pie, compliments of Simply Southern in Pelham, one of our favorite local restaurants.  Those of you who may remember my grandmother's reputation for chess pie will be surprised to hear me say that this one is as good as I remember hers to be.

This was Will's first time to meet his new cousin, Malenda.  He and Camille were quite excited to hold her and Malenda was a perfect champ - actually seemed to be quite fascinated with her new cousins.  We have gone from 1 grandchild to 4 grandchildren in less than one year.  The joy - and the decibel level - has multiplied many times over.

We had put up the Christmas tree and the lights.  The 3 grandchildren began digging out all the ornaments and garland.  Before we knew it, it was beautifully decorated, and Jimmy topped the tree with the angel. The kids rewarded themselves with orange juice- well deserved!!  I may never decorate the tree myself again.  Wonder if they will be around when it's time to undecorate the tree?

I love this holiday season - and I'm giving thanks every day for the wonderful family that we have around us.  Our house and our lives are indeed full - and now strangely quiet!!  We had a couple of inches of snow this weekend, and I'm sitting here in this quiet house feeling very warm as I look at this very special Christmas tree!!

We are looking forward to Malenda's first Christmas.  I just can't get enough of this beautiful little 3-month old child.  The joy and hope that she expresses every time we see her reflect the true message of this season.

"A baby is God's opinion that life should go on."  -Carl Sandburg.