Thankful

So, we had a really full Thanksgiving weekend......
My Brother Al was home from New Jersey for 3 days, Grandma Elaine was visiting from Florida, Thanksgiving at my parents, LaSalette, St.Jean Holiday party and Avery's birthday.....it was crazy, messy, chaotic and fun!



It is so good to spend time with my brother, he is witty, smart and funny.....I wish we could see him more, although he does make an effort to visit every month or so. The girls love him, Avery made up the "Uncle Al" song and she and Emmy dance to it. Its cute.
DJ has a little rivalry with Uncle Al, he is a little-teeny-tiny bit jealous because when Al is here, DJ is not the main focal point of my parents......but I know he loves him!



Grandma Elaine was able to spend some time with the kids, they were all happy to see her. Each time she comes, the initial shyness is less and less. Elaine brought Avery a puzzle and it did not take her long to pick up the concept and go with it! She loves it! Its neat to watch her discover new things....Emmy follows suit, its awesome!

Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful, as expected......Mom was stressed, as expected.
I love Thanksgiving, it is just a great day to eat and relax, although there really is not too much relaxing when there are small children involved!
We ate at my parents and spent time with my Grandmother, Aunt and cousin.
Later on we packed up the kids and went to see the lights at LaSalette, it was too nice of a night to pass up. It was beautiful and I tried to take it in. When I was little, it was just a lot of really neat lights and hot chocolate, so I tried to take in the spirituality and really appreciate it from an adults point of view, but Emmy had other ideas.
She didn't want any part of it and was trying to escape the confines of her stroller the whole time.
Needless to say, I didn't have a chance to reflect or take it in, but we saw the lights!

We went to Wright's Chicken Farm for our holiday gathering for the St.Jean side of my family. With all of the best intentions it was planned to be an enjoyable dinner with the family, however, not by any one's fault, it was horrible! DJ was not speaking to me, my girls were monsters, I couldn't engage in any conversation because everyone was spread out and my girls were monsters, neither Chris, me or the girls ate anything.....because they were monsters, I heard that the food sucked and we actually had to pay for this! Oh well, Donna informed me that next year it will be deserts and coffee at her house so we can actually spend time together as a family.

Avery is officially 4 years old! We had her party earlier in the month, so her day was just that....."her day". We did whatever she wanted, which was not going to Miss Buffy's gymnastics class! We played outside and hung out, she opened gifts from us and she got to play with them.....it was Avery's Day!!!!