Thanksgiving Day Part II

Welcome to Thanksgiving Day Part II ... Partially because I was tired, partially because photos and blogger were not getting along ... Today I am finally getting to share Thanksgiving with everyone!  Have decided to do a photo "dump" seeing as it should go through the day quickly.

Another blessed holiday with family, food, and fun!
(P.S. Christmas Eve/Day in less than a month!)

Decorations - Fireplace Mantle

Decorations - Pilgrim Craft (upside-down flower pots)

Decorations - Turkey Craft (Walnuts, wooden hearts
painted yellow, felt, fall leaves, googly eyes)

Hostess finishing gravy and bread
(Beautiful kitchen remodel, congrats
to my aunt and uncle!!)

Appetizers 1 of 2

Appetizers 2 of 2

Great-Grandparents with all three of their
great-grandchildren (all boys so far!)

Dinner 1 of 2 (salad with toppings; assorted veggies
and cranberry dishes; honey baked ham at the far end)

Dinner 2 of 2 (mashed potatoes; cheesy potatoes;
two different turkeys; light and dark gravy)

Baby K with the hostess flowers
(and a first Thanksgiving bib)

Dessert area!

Again, so thankful for all of the blessings in our lives -- Thanksgiving gives us a special day every year to stop and remember to enjoy (and eat, and visit, and....you get the picture!) Hope you enjoyed dropping by, Thanksgiving Day Part I posted here

Thankful

Thankful Full Of Gratitude

Today I am so very, very thankful for many things... okay, a small part of me is still selfish and grumpy at the computer/internet/blogger for NOT allowing me to post Thanksgiving photos... Yet I am overwhelmingly blessed and am taking the opportunity to write a brief THANK YOU message.

God, my parents, my sister, family friends, extended family, people who I have not seen or spoken to in ages, those whom I have spoken with in the past few days... I might get into negative "spots" and have trouble seeing all that I have to be thankful for in that moment, but looking at my whole life, the last nine years, the last two days, the last sixty seconds -- I am more blessed than I could ever deserve, and I am very deeply thankful for everything good and bad and in-between that has brought me to this moment in life.

Dear God, I want to take a minute,
Not to ask for anything from you,
But simply to say THANK YOU,
For all I have.

Note: On Thanksgiving Day (28th) we celebrated with most of my mom's side of the family (four of the five sisters with their significant others and many of the "kids" such as myself)... The day after Thanksgiving, TODAY (Nov. 29th) we had a wonderfully [sort of rare] opportunity to celebrate with three of the four siblings on my dad's side of the family (and their significant others and a few "kids") -- hopefully this Christmas season we can celebrate again with both sides of the family tree, so fun!!

 I hope all of you can find at least one single thing/person/thought/etc to be thankful for, today and everyday ::HUGS::

Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Thanksgivukkah?

Okay, so apparently today was/is a once in a lifetime event -- both Thanksgiving and Hanukkah fall on the same day!  So a very Happy Day to all!  : )  The shirt image is one of three images I liked that I found online...

Seeing as my family only celebrates Thanksgiving, most of my photos/images today (and tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day Part II -- sorry, late and I am thankful but tired!) will reflect that...

Was up early enough to catch the last of the sunrise, just as the clouds were losing the pink tint (apologies in advance, cell phone had poor quality in my opinion).
 

SO many things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving Day, but my life family friends - God has given so much and I do not always take the time to say thank you.  Blogger is acting up for me, so I shall just leave you with one more actual photo.  Had my sister and her son (my nephew) with us the last two days which was lovely!

My nephew - 2013 his first Thanksgiving

Promise of more photos -- decorations and food mostly! -- to come ::HUGS::

Baby K is TWO MONTHS OLD today!

Can you tell that I am just a *bit* excited about the facts that a) I have a nephew and b) today is exactly eight weeks from the day my family was with my sister in Labor and Delivery??  Baby K had a one month photo shoot... plus MANY casual photos these first few weeks of life! I shall simply say how much I love all of my family and particularly how proud I am of Baby K's parents for being wonderful (and his godparents - but his Baptism post shall come later.  Maybe tomorrow?)  Time to share photos!!

Baby K (one hour after birth)

Baby K "playing" with me at 15 days old

Baby K One Month Photo Shoot (inside treasure box)

Baby K One Month Photo Shoot (close up)

Baby K One Month Photo Shoot (on a cloud of blue tulle)

Look at this handsome "Tough Guy!"

Baby K is going to be a bookworm! : )

Can you tell we love the most recent addition to our family? Random fun fact: on one side of our family tree he is the third great-grandchild ... and all three are boys! Wonder what else the future has in store!

I turned 30!

Well, not recently ^.^  I turned thirty back in March of this year -- but according to this blog that was only a couple of posts ago so I am not far behind at all!  (Yes, I know that in real life I am behind by...wow.  Okay, a little over eight months.  Very behind.  Oh well!)  So this is one of two "formal" photos I had taken for my 30th birthday.  I was incredibly blessed by a huge gift from my parents - a short cruise to Mexico! I received a few cards, bought a couple of books, and spent the day in pj's -- except I did go out to dinner and picked two slices of cake for my birthday treat.  I know, I know, such a party animal!  : )  I had the most wonderful relaxing time however, and felt very lucky on my birthday/during my celebrations! I did post it on here, but it was almost an afterthought -- my godson's feast day is my birthday which is great!

There are a couple of photos I found that I wanted to include in my last post which I found and am going to add now because I can -- my best friend lived only a few miles from our house growing up; after she double majored in French and English she traveled to France (with her Bachelor's Degree's under her belt she went to study and to celebrate)...and ended up finding her boyfriend/fiance/husband/father of her children!  Luckily for all of us still in CA, they had a wedding ceremony here in addition to the one in France.  And as I have mentioned time and time again, when they had their rainbow twins (a girl and a boy) - they chose me to be godmother to the little boy! Photos are from this past summer...

"Reading" me his picture book

My godson and his twin sister pushing/playing with swings

My godson climbing the mini rock wall so he could go down the big boy slide

Annual summer visit from "my France family"

Continuing on my catching up, I have to do talk about how thrilled I was to get another few weeks in with my godson, his twin sister, and their parents!! Actually, they had a surprise for us...

Mom was pregnant again! (just one this time - girl!)

So we had a family of FIVE visit this past summer!  I have no clue how the days flew by so fast (okay, I know but I somehow cannot find photos from their visit... somewhere I have at least a couple of my godson climbing up the side of the play structure that was built in the backyard while they were gone, but that will have to wait)... It was absolutely lovely having them visit, and meeting their baby girl.  The twins were so cute too, learning how to touch baby "gentle, soft ... careful!" and being told "shh! baby sleeping!" if we walked by her too loudly for their liking.

Mom S. with new baby girl;
Me holding my godson

 This is the only photo of their visit I can find at the moment, it is from their last night in town before heading to LAX in the wee small hours of the morning.  It took two cars to fit everyone, their checked luggage, and their carry-on items -- I am thankful that I was not one of two parents with three infants/toddlers, although I wanted to travel for a visit so badly!  Plus I am sure an extra set of hands the entire trip back would have been welcome!  Perhaps next summer... Until then all of us in CA will love and miss them -- oh, and the twins start school this year!  (In France you start younger than in the USA).

Safely back in France!
(Mom, twins, and baby girl; photo by Dad!)

Catching up

Hello blog world ::HUGS:: Playing catch up with about eight months since I went *poof* from here...

First, my apologies.  I do not have any reasons that are "good enough" for not posting.  I have, however, been following as many of your blogs as often as I could have. Also there have been several major health issues in my immediate family but shall stick to the top three: both of my grandparents, and my only sibling, my younger (well, 26 to my 30 years) sister.

My grandfather had a major heart attack, was in the hospital for a while, then moved to home hospice care (couple smaller heart attacks at home) -- and now is recovering very well!! So thankful, and hospice care has been stopped because he has improved so much!  Able to go ahead and re-schedule his skin cancer removal surgery (on his cheek, under his eye) -- he now only has a tiny bandage instead of half his face covered in gauze!



While my grandfather was ill, my grandmother somehow hurt her back but did not want to "take attention away from my husband" -- well intentioned of her yet she now has a compressed vertebrae which will take at least three months to recover from.  Luckily my relatives have been able to purchase a zero-gravity chair for her which she is able to sleep in.  Apparently she had not slept in her bed for a while and simply declined to tell anyone until asked point blank.  (Really though, how am I to guess the exact questions?  Multiple family members play this "game" and I dislike having to guess to get answers!)  She too is healing which is lovely!

My younger sister found out that she was expecting, and I know she does not understand how blessed she was (and is!!!) with her pregnancy and new son. I prayed and have bent over backwards getting her doctors appointments (luckily with our parents help) and... just so thankful and grateful she only had one tiny bump in the road during the unexpected pregnancy.

(C going on nine months)

(Baby K at only ten minutes old!)

She and the boyfriend (fiance now) were both using substances they should not have - which only increased my anxiety - but both of them (and his family) seemed to only be familiar with the "pregnant equals healthy baby" story and I could not bear to share the stories I know nor connect her with people who have been/are going through so many struggles to get something so very very precious.  Between my own worries and my concern for others online I have waited until now to be able to say that she has a healthy baby boy who was just baptized last weekend!



Lots to talk about, however there are days to come...Love the holiday season so with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years all coming up hopefully I will post more (my godson and his family visiting, baby K getting baptized, etc, etc) Happy Fall everyone!!