Thanksgiving 2018 is "in the books"

Here it is the day before Thanksgiving and I still have my Halloween decorations on the dining room table waiting to be packed up and taken downstairs.......... no wonder I was surprised to see Christmas decorations in Parker a few weeks earlier.

Finally Thanksgiving morning, I managed to get the Halloween decorations downstairs and the Thanksgiving ones upstairs before everyone arrived for dinner.  Jack o lanterns really don't fit with Thanksgiving.

Carter and Alex combined weighed less than our turkey this year and that ham you see in the photo was one of the best hams we had eaten in a long time.  Mom Hall has brought it to add to dinner.

I never think to get pictures of the whole group, but got these of Scarlett and James as they were getting ready to leave to Thanksgiving dinner at their other grandparents' home.

Jessica and Elessia spent the night so we got some extra time with them.

Alex and Carter's first Thanksgiving--still young enough that they have to wear the shirts their parents dress them in.  :)

Thursday night after everyone was in bed, I was walking around the house cleaning up like I try to do each night--when I came around the corner and saw this pile of shoes in our mud room.  Probably due to the holiday and think about my blessings, I am not sure why--but when I saw this, I teared up.  It made me so happy to have a pile of shoes of people I love in my mud room.  It made me think of other piles of shoes in other mudrooms or entry ways of the different places we have lived with our kids and places where we have had Thanksgiving dinners together. Memories are such a power part of our lives and I was grateful to have that quiet moment to remember and be grateful for shoes, but more importantly, the people who walk in them--even those who shoes were not there that night.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of the Hall children, their spouses, and our grandchildren.  We count you as a great blessing in our lives!  And Happy Thanksgiving 2018 to all of our family and friends.