Thanksgiving festivities

Caden's Shadowbrook program and feast
We started the week before Thanksgiving by celebrating with this guy at his feast. The students sang a few songs for us in the sanctuary first.

I knew I had better get a picture as they were coming in because once the stage filled up, there would not be a good shot left.

Our little pilgrim

The staff prepares a full Thanksgiving meal and the students prepare the tablescape with handmade items. It has been very special to collect these over the last 5 years.

Caden and Daddy

 Ethan's Kindergarten classroom program and feast
Next up was Ethan's feast in his classroom. The kiddos made corn and green beans and parents brought in the rest of the meal.

My big guy

Ethan and his buddy, Johnathan

Then the class shared some special songs with us

Thanksgiving at Mimi's
When the boys were finally out of school, we headed to Mimi's. They look forward to this week every year because we get to spend the whole week at her house! The first thing on the agenda was a little flag football. Daddy has been teaching Ethan and Caden the finer points of the game.

Collier comes from a very athletic family so she wanted in on the action, too ;-)

Hut, Hut

A gentle pass from Uncle Ben

Cousin love

For the first time, Maw-Maw was able to come and stay several days. It was so nice to spend extra time all together! She and Doc brought their Winnie so there would be plenty of room for them and their 4 dogs. Which is definitely a good thing since between Mom, Chad, and us we have 4 dogs also running around. Collier adored Maw-Maw and spent more time with her than she did either Mom or myself...we were only a little jealous ;-)

My favorite time of day while we are at Mom's is breakfast. Some mornings we cook and some mornings we don't. But we all hang out around the table to have our coffee and catch up. I guess this was breakfast round 1, though, since there are just kiddos in this picture.

Now, this girl was totally making herself at home in Gunter's bed. He weighs about 5 pounds compared to her 50 so it was hilarious watching her turn around in circles trying to fit in his bed...

But she figured it out...

and made a cozy spot for herself!

We managed to fit in a visit to Mimi's office one day.

And we can't forget THE 2015 Black Friday list. It has now become a tradition to scope out the Wal-Mart ad in advance and make our list since that is about all the town has to offer. But it's perfect though, one stop and back home! Then we wait until the crowds die down the next afternoon to go back to town to finish up at other stores.

I did a very poor job of picture documentation at Thanksgiving this year! I will definitely have to do better at Christmas.