Giving Thanks and Thanksgiving

The days and weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, I had the opportunity to be surrounded by friends and family whom I love. This season of the year is my favorite. I am so blessed. Here are just a few of the highlights from the past little bit.

Derek here is loving his little cousin Luke. Despite cheering for opposing teams during the big game - they came together to share their mutual love of one another :)

Don't you wish you were a cougar fan too? Not that I'm really that into football, but that was a good game, and even better that our team won!! Go blue!

Thanksgiving morning my sisters family & I have a tradition of running a turkey trot (to try and balance out the mass consumption of food & goodies). This year we ran the Fleet Feet turkey trot, and it was nice, besides being very chilly!

My B-I-L Bill picked up a puzzle during his routine trip over to Cabellas, and made his own little setup (tablecloth, lamp & all), to do his puzzle work. I ended up getting a little too obsessed with the puzzle. Now, I just need to find more time to finish it :)

The boys (Bill, Steve & Dave) watching the game.

Meanwhile, Derek enjoyed playing Lego Indiana Jones in the front room that had been converted to a projection Xbox 360 haven. He & his cousins couldn't stop giggling - he loved having buddies to play with!

The feast! The culmination of all our hard efforts in the kitchen. It was a lovely meal, and we enjoyed having my sister Christine, Melanie (& fam), and Dave's folks over for the big meal. There's nothing better than being surrounded with family at Thanksgiving.

Earlier in the month some girlfriends & I went to the Christmas show, and had a great time! I'm glad for good girlfriends, they make the day-to-day so much more enjoyable!

In addition to this, there were games played, treats eaten and black friday shopping done. Those pictures will be posted later... Pulling an all nighter of shopping is ridiculous. My sister & niece and I started at 11pm, and ended shortly after 7am. Stores should just open at 8am.... allowing for more sleep :) At least some Christmas shopping was done :)