Thankful.

For the past several years, I have been really late getting my Thanksgiving photos posted on the blog. See here and here. 

So this year, I decided that I was not going to let that happen! As hard as it is for me to post out of chronological order, I am going to put off posting the last of our New Orleans vacay and post Thanksgiving photos instead!

This year for Thanksgiving, we spent the holiday with Chris's side of the family. Since we've been married (11 years!), we have alternated spending Thanksgiving and Christmas with our families since there is really no way that we could see them all in one day due to distance.

Now, Chris's side of the family generally celebrates Thanksgiving on Black Friday (and none of us are Black Friday shoppers, so it works out just fine) because Chris's sister goes to her in-laws on Thanksgiving day. This year, though, Chris and I decided to spend Thanksgiving Day with his just grandparents and then Black Friday with the whole family. It worked out really well!

Chris's grandparents live out in the country on 95 beautiful acres. Brenson and Brianna both love going out there!

The weather was amazing on Thanksgiving Day, so we spent a lot of time outside.

Several of their trees were still beautiful yellows and reds. Gorgeous.

Chris grew up spending many nights and weekends on this land, so it's really special to him to spend time with his children out there. He will most likely inherit a large portion of it someday.

Chris's grandparents are 80 years old, and just not able to do much of the manual labor that needs to be done on the land. One of the main reasons we went out there on Thursday was so Chris could do some projects and jobs that needed to be done for them. He really tries to do his part to make sure they are cared for . . . one of the many things that I respect about my husband!

Brenson is quite a chunk, and it was a strain for Chris's little grandma to hold him!

Brianna adores Grandpa and Grandma (I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual :-).

I love this photo of my little man! He is such a happy guy, and was so well behaved and pleasant the whole time we were visiting.

Our little family on Brenson's first Thanksgiving. Thankful beyond words.

The next day, we went to Chris's parents' house. They actually live on the same 90 acres as his grandparents, though the houses are barely within walking distance of each other. During Brenson's first official Thanksgiving meal, he ate sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, broccoli/rice casserole, and a bit of a roll. He definitely approved of this meal!

After dinner, Chris's mom decided to have the grandkids help her set up the Christmas tree. I decided this would be a good time to try and get a photo of all four of them. Haha! I thought it would be fairly simple . . . I mean, there are only four of them!

This first attempt is okay . . .

My kids weren't really cooperating.

If I could get Zeke's face from the photo above and put it in this one, then I think we'd have a decent shot.

Last attempt - I give up!

And no, I'm not very patient with that sort of thing :-).

Cousin Abby, 8 years old:

Brianna, 2 years old:

She loved decorating the tree this year!

Cousin Zeke - 4 years old:

And, my little Brenson, 9 months old (and very sleepy . . . this was just a few minutes before nap time):

Brenson really favors Zeke's baby photos (especially with that cleft they both have in their chins). Do you think they look alike? I'm interested to see if Brenson continues to favor Zeke as he gets older.

We had a really great Thanksgiving, with so much for which to be thankful. This year, it was especially sweet watching all the kiddos play together. They are at the best age for that.

How was your Thanksgiving holiday?