A Weekend of Thanksgiving

It seems like every year Thanksgiving weekend is an extremely busy time for us, but this year it was busy for a different reason for me – I have a job!  Reason enough to give thanks if you ask me.  While, of course I could use a little extra spare time right now, pretty much every morning I get up to go to this thing they call a job, I thank God that I have it to go to.  In light of that, since I had to work during the days surrounding Thanksgiving this year, we spent most of it in Gainesville.

On Thanksgiving day we celebrated with some family and friends at my Mom’s house.  It also happened to by my sister-in-law, Star’s,  birthday, so of course the day involved a little cake and ice cream in addition to the regular feast.  We had a not so thanks-inspiring turn of events, though, after our feast when my Mom’s well went out and left us without water.  The timing was ironic in that my brother had just started burning her large burn pile (made of yard clippings).  He pulled the hose out to keep it all under control and asked mom to turn it on only to get nothing.  All the boys, including the little guys, jumped right on fixing it, but it turned out to be a big problem that required a repairman (and lots of money) the next day.  Have you ever used a hose stretched from the neighbor’s house to clean up after a Thanksgiving meal?

Hmmm…what’s wrong with this thing?

All the boys on the job.  Brian Borges and his oldest two boys joined us for dinner while Julie slept at home to recover from a long night at work.  We put Brian to work while he was there.

Josiah is thankful for acorns.  He is an avid collector and they provide him with hours of entertainment.  You can see the remnants of our fire in the background.

Star’s birthday cake.  As you can see, she is only 12.

Jacob spent the next two days at the hunting camp in Appalachicola while I got to go to work.  As I said, I am thoroughly thankful for this opportunity, but I was also thoroughly worn out by then end of working. taking care of Josiah, being pregnant, and the holiday.  Needless to say, I was thankful to see Jacob’s face Saturday night.

Sunday we headed to the Tampa area for my annual family reunion and “turkey bucks auction”.  This is always a fun time with great food and catching up.  The Turkey Bucks Auction is where we all bring our unwanted stuff and bid on it with fake money.  This year I scored several baby items that were on my want list for Elijah.  Nothing like barely used free stuff!  Though not part of the auction, I also came away with the canvas of Josiah that my Uncle was printing up for me to hang in Josiah’s new cowboy themed room.  It turned out fantastic and I LOVE it!  I couldn’t be happier with it.  Now I’m inspired to get to painting and decorating his new room.

All the kids.  Josiah was the ONLY one who wouldn’t stand for the picture.  An older cousin had to hold him and this was taken moments before he started crying in protest.  From here they all dispersed and got really dirty as you’ll see below.

Uncle Teddy as our auctioneer.

Two dirty, but happy little girls.  Savannah and Audrey always have fun when they get together, can you tell?

And some more dirty but happy cousins.  These two both had to be bathed before going home.  The tub had a layer of dirt in the bottom of it by the time Josiah got out.

This is what a tired out little boy who didn’t have a nap looks like within the first few minutes of the ride home.  He’s such a sweetie and has permanently stolen my heart.