Saturday, November 29

Our Thanksgiving

This year, we were very blessed with a wonderful time with our family for Thanksgiving!

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For the Shaeffer Family Thanksgiving, we all met at my Aunt Janet and Uncle Mark's house. My cousin, Ben, made three amazingly delicious turkeys, raised on his own turkey farm (a real 'old fashion' Thanksgiving!). He had a 30 pound baked turkey, a deep fried turkey and a mesquite turkey. I have never seen so much turkey in all my life! We had our turkey with all of the traditional trimmings. For the first time, I made a home-made cranberry sauce. I also brought a sweet potato bake, with brown sugar crumbs and roasted marshmellows. Peter helped me make some lemon pound cake, for dessert. And, besides the butter splatter all over my stove, he did a pretty good job! We arrived at my Uncle's home, around noon, my cousins and I decorated the tables and Ben carved the turkeys, then we said grace and then enjoyed one of the best meals of the year!
My Uncle Mark and cousin Ben share a tractor together (since they're neighbors!), so we got to enjoy a hayride over hills and old roads in the country. It was wonderful smelling the crisp air and just being out with our family!
As most traditions go in our family, after a big meal, we all felt like we had 'bellies full of jelly', so we all napped or relaxed while watching the football game on T.V.

Tim and I took our sleepy kiddo's to bed, and got a little shut eye ourselves. Then, around seven, we headed over to Tim's parents house. My mother-in-law had just finished putting up their themed Christmas trees and decorations, so Peter and James got a real kick out of all the lights and snowmen all over the house. Dot has a lot to handle at her home, with the 24 hour care of my Great-Aunt Eleanor, so our tradition with Tim's parents are a little different. We typically go somewhere nice for dinner on Thanksgiving day, and even though it may sound strange, it is just as precious to us and our boys!
This year, we ate at Crackle Barrel, and had a delicious dinner with such a nice staff! All the waiters came up to our table to play with the boys. It was a really lovely evening.

The kids stayed with my in-laws for a sleep-over, so that Tim and I could get up at 3:30 the next morning, to stand in the crazy lines for black Friday's Christmas shopping!
It was a Wonderful Blessed Thanksgiving!!!

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