Thanksgiving 2011

Christmas music was on, and everything was ready.

 12:30 was dinner time, and no one was late.

My wonderful family began arriving with hugs

and wishes for a happy Thanksgiving.

*

We all knelt in prayer in the living room, and Mark

asked each son to call on one member of their

family to say what they were thankful for.

There were expressions of love and gratitude.

But...When Justin asked his daughter Lauren

to represent the family, she broke down in tears and expressed

love and thankfulness for her dad. We all lost it. This has been

a rough year for their family, and everyone was touched by her

genuine love she has for Justin.

 Cast of characters:

MY Family

Justin, McKinzie, McKay, Lauren, Mike, Christopher and Hunter 

Brandon and Heather, Mark, Luke and Autumn

Joe and Marci, Dakota, Emma, Colin, Camri, Beau and Annie

Jake and Liz, Andrew, Christian, Samantha, Alexandra

and Bridger

Ethan, Amy, Kaeli, McKenna, Dallas and Leah

Food:
(who says it isn't about the food?)
Besides cooking 2 turkeys, mashed potatoes,
 stuffing and gravy, we had
fresh fruit, pretzel raspberry salad,
 winter salad with cranapples, pears,
 apples, and cashews, potato salad, Marci's sweet potato casserole,
and zuchinni with melted cheese on top.
 chips and dip, Pomagranate slush and all of the below.
Relish and veggie display

10 dozen rolls

6 bags of chips with clam dip

raspberry tarts

Sugar Cookies

Pumpkin Pie

Apple pie and cherry pie

After feasting and expressing gratitude we watched a dvd that

McKinzie put together with all the Heugly happenings over the past year.

Fantastic!!! It's become a tradition.
Then it was time to play... Games, basketball, dolls, rock band
risk, sorry, pool. You name it we played it.
Around 10:00 pm it was time to call it a night.

We had Justin and his kids sleep over Thursday and Friday night.

We went to see moneyball and goofed off at the theatre.

 We took the whole row.

 We had mexican food one day, and had sushi the next.

And yes, we pretty much dusted off the left overs.

Family, Food, Fun = grateful hearts

*****

and.......even when you have the best gathering ever, it's just not

family without a little drama.

Jake was admitted to the ER on Thanksgiving night with kidney stones.

Ouch!!!