The Rest of the (Thanksgiving) Story

Wrapping things up...we spent most of the day Friday with my family.  There was a lot of love and play between the cousins and lots of conversations and laughter with the grown-ups.

Lily Bug & Landon

This little buddy is the funniest thing...he can hold a poker face better than anyone I know!  And I am DIGGIN' his Elmo pjs!

This is a strong desire for milk (or "munk" as she says).

Someone coerced? begged? convinced? Aunt Bethy (or she planned it because she is just that sweet & loves us so!) into making biscotti, but not just any biscotti-THE BEST biscotti ever.  It's so fresh and yummy and perfect with coffee or milk or plain.  I'm not going to lie to you-there were lots of hand-slapping (from her directed at us) and sneaking (of us when she wasn't looking) of the dough, but we didn't take so much to mess up the recipe & we each got to eat enough of the half-baked ends to gain a pound or two.

 We couldn't get by without the drama, of course!

All the other children were present and accounted for...I think they were just good at avoiding the camera!

This is the special Nana baths...where as space is the key to Grandma's, cramped & out-of-the-ordinary is the special-ness of Nana's.  All the kids love to bathe in the utility sink on the back porch and it's a sad day when you finally realize that you have outgrown it (speaking from experience!  I can remember taking baths in here too & how much I loved it).  As a momma, it's the bomb because it's such a back-saver.

We also gave Ava cakes her very first hair cut.

We took some time on Friday to visit my grandmother, who was in the hospital, and my great-aunt Dolores.  This is her, at 95 (or more?) years of age...she was the one who watched us from the time we were little until we were almost in high school.  As a person of the Great Depression, the woman saved everything and wasted nothing.  We spent our summers with her & we rode the bus to her house after school on the days my mom worked...she would take us to the Dairy Queen for ice cream & the Pizza Hut for little personal pan pizzas every Friday during summer and she would let us drive her car up the drive way, starting when we had to sit on her lap to see.  Sometimes we would stay the night with her and sleep on this tiny, tiny bed or the other "big" bed that had a ton of hand-made quilts on it.  It was hard to see her decline in health...just this summer she was still able to remember who I was & you could have a conversation with her on paper.  Her mind has always been so sharp, but she is fading...she did love to see all the kids & kept talking about how beautiful they were & that Lily smelled so sweet.  Memories to hold on to...

After Friday, things went downhill so to speak...one by one family members began to get a stomach virus.  Yuck.  Not the best ending, but a very fun holiday none the less.