The way Zach and I decided our holiday schedule it worked out where every Thanksgiving we spend with my family. Mom’s side of the family does a BIG get-together every other year (the odd years the brothers spend with their wives families). Thankfully, this year was the “off” year. Since I was too far along pregnant to travel I would have hated to miss the big family gathering!!! We knew we’d all just stay local this year (a first for us!!!) and Mom decided to host it at her house. We were SUPER excited that two of my aunts decided to come celebrate with us 🙂
Since I was a few days shy of 38 weeks pregnant we were busy busy getting everything done, hoping I’d go into labor that weekend with Stacy on call (obviously, that didn’t happen). We spent the day prior to Thanksgiving working on stuff then hardcore cleaned the house on Thanksgiving morning (since Blitzen still isn’t here I’m thinking the house could use another deep cleaning here soon). Around 10:30ish we headed to Mom’s to visit with everyone and get our Thanksgiving on!
Watching some football 🙂
Mom, Auntie Becky, and Auntie Amy had the kitchen going so I kinda stayed out of the way 🙂 Auntie Amy and Uncle Joe have a new puppy who was precious and Auntie Becky and Lonnie brought their two dogs (one of which used to be Mom’s) so Kye was in dog HEAVEN. He loved playing with them all, especially the newest puppy. We had Kye go down for nap there but it did not go over well. We have learned that Kye does not nap well at other places when there is a lot of excitement. It’s best for us to leave the fun and take him home. Zach ended up getting him up during his nap and taking him back to the house to finish it up (such a GOOD daddy!!!) and I ended up falling asleep in his bed at Mom’s while they were gone!
It was wonderful getting to spend quality time with my family. We are a BIG bunch and sometimes it’s easy to not get that one-on-one time with each person when we’re all together so the smaller group was really wonderful! We took full advantage of the opportunity for some pictures! I’m posting them all so they can all steal the ones they want (you can click on the pictures to make them bigger, then right click and save on your computer!!!).
Auntie Amy and Uncle Joe
My mom’s sister (the 3rd child of the 6)
They actually lived in Lawrenceville when we were growing up so Auntie Amy has always been special to me!
Auntie Becky and Lonnie
Auntie Becky is Mom’s sister and the 2nd of the 6 kids!
The live in Melbourne and growing up Auntie Becky was the silly, fun aunt who loved to paint
Sisters!
Gotta have a silly one 🙂
Mom and Me
Us Girls
I’m glad we got some pictures of the three of us, as these could potentially be the last ones as a family we have before we’re a family of four!
More than ANYTHING else this year I’m thankful for God first and my guys 2nd!!!
SO BLESSED!
We ate dinner at about 5 and it was fabulous! We enjoyed going around and saying what we were thankful for, which is a yearly tradition for us. It was nice b/c none of us drink so there wasn’t any alcohol, no drunken drama, just enjoying each others company!!! We headed out pretty early so Kye could get his bath and into the bed but we had a great time and I really appreciate Mom hosting as I know in my condition I couldn’t have managed!!!
Friday morning the Thanksgiving fun continued as we went out to the Country Club to golf. Zach and his dad have a yearly father/son tournament and they invited Uncle Joe, Aunt Karen and Kye to play too. I got my own golf cart and literally rode over every bump at full speed. Didn’t work but I tried haha! Kye had a BLAST and we stayed for the first 9 holes then I took him to let them finish up. Zach, of course, WON the tournament 😉 Here’s a video of Kye warming up before they started and here’s some pictures from our morning
Uncle Joe, Zach and Kye
LOVE this!
Keeping score
Aunt Karen let Kye play in the sand traps, I wouldn’t have probably allowed it but she’s married to the head of the grounds of the course so I’m sure if SHE says it’s okay then it is 😉
Up to no good face 😉
Aunt Karen helping him rake it up
Kye loves his GAK (Great Aunt Karen)!
Three generations of Parker men…
…and awesome golfers 😉
Being HOME for Thanksgiving really made the break feel sooooo long. It was great! Kye and I were both truly sad when Monday came and Daddy had to go back to work. It made me look forward to the day (like 40 years from now haha) when Zach is retired and we’ll get to spend ALL our time together like that! We took advantage of every minute and had a wonderful time together.
What are your Thanksgiving traditions?
