Baby Thanks

Christmas is coming and the beauty of the holiday season is all around me. But before I can fully give myself over to it, I need to wrap up Thanksgiving and count a few more blessings that I enjoyed over the long weekend.

After we eat Thanksgiving dinner, we always go around the table and share what we're thankful for.  I provided a cute little paper (from Pinterest!) in each person's place card for them to write what they're especially thankful for in this past year. Lots of major things happened this year,  like new jobs, a new home, a new puppy, and a college graduation. Craig and Stephanie were in Alabama visiting her family, but Anisa produced a beautiful Thanksgiving card from them, on which they had written what they are thankful for, which made this mama very happy! A year ago at Thanksgiving, Anisa mentioned to Stephanie that there was an opening at the Postal Plaza where she works. This year, Anisa was thankful that she gets to work with Stephanie because she is such a sweetheart! And then there was Will, who is thankful for "the entertainment that is LeAnn". (That was right after I had lost control of the salad tongs and flung salad across the table at Rachel, Duane's special friend.)  Oops. Lucky she's such a good sport.

Nick and girlfriend Christina are very thankful for each other and…for the baby that's on the way! What a precious gift we are all anticipating in May 2014! I am overjoyed that she invited me to come along to the ultrasound just before Christmas when they learn if it's a boy or girl! I'm gonna be a grandma!

Have I mentioned how much I love having some girls in the family? Christina livens things up around here,  and we know that she is going to be an amazing loving mom.

We've shared Thanksgiving with my brother Doug and his family for many years, and our kids keep bringing more special people along to make it even more fun. I put together a slide show with pictures of our two families over many years that I wanted to play on the TV during the day.  (Of course there was technical difficulty when it came time to play it but my genius husband eventually got it working.) But I noticed we'd never taken a group photo of everyone, though there are many shots of those gathered around the table with my chair empty!

After dinner, I didn't actually say that everyone had to take a walk around our loop if they wanted dessert, but no one objected to a little stroll on this beautiful sunny day. Will took the camera and tripod and masterfully took some group pictures of the whole group at the park,  including a nice one and a silly one. I hope you can figure out which is which.

We didn't notice at the time, but strangely enough, Will didn't set the timer and sprint back to us on the silly one.

Anisa thought it would be fun for all of us girls to throw leaves in the air. I challenge you to line up with a bunch of girls, count 1,2,3 and throw a bunch of leaves in the air without whooping it up and laughing! Oh yes, we know how to have a good time!

"Black Friday" was another great day. I awakened at 8:30 a.m. feeling completely refreshed and relaxed after Will and I stayed up late watching a movie or two. After a bite of breakfast I drove off to meet my friend Candace at a beautiful garden, where we sat and soaked up the sun. Oh wait, that was in August. This time we met at Starbucks, which was very crowded, but two comfy chairs opened up just in time for us. They were even right next to each other. Good coffee, great friend. Wonderful. And just looking at this picture, I can feel the warmth of the sun, smell the lavender, and smile at the memory of some good laughs with my friend.

Then I joined the throngs at Fred Meyer to get my half-price socks and got side tracked browsing through scarves and jewelry that were 60% off. My sister Hope and I hooked up and decided to meet at Panda Express after hitting Kohls. She got there before me and let me know that the line was extremely long so I skipped it. After our lunch, we moseyed over to Red Robin where my sis-in-law Carol and niece Dawn were having lunch. I had coffee again.  I love time with all these women.

(I'm pretty pleased that I figured out how to spell mosey. I tried lots of different ways before that red underline disappeared.)

Another fun outing with more special women on Saturday morning. My friends since high school, Mim and Becky, joined me at my place for coffee, then we headed down to "Christmas in the Barn" on Roberts Road in Shedd. A beautiful place to get in the holiday spirit for sure. And these girls make me laugh. Becky thinks she looks like a marshmallow in this picture. Yes, she is very sweet. And we got to see my lovely niece Janelle, who took this picture and who works at the Barn. Ok, we also saw her wonderful brother Micah who was delivering a Dutch Bros coffee to her. Is that sweet or what? I didn't want to mention Micah because I really messed up the introduction. Sometimes I suspect that I am getting old. Or something.

 Last but not least, on Sunday my niece Faith and her husband were here from California so we had a family dinner in Brownsville. Which means I got to see the adorable Serena and Jamison. Few things in life are better than a child running excitedly to greet you with a big hug! Serena loves to play with this basket of "breakables" at Grandma's house.

 Jamison is delighted when he gets to touch the breakables too. 

This is the little guy who went out the door unnoticed when people were leaving, got in the driver's seat in his family's minivan and laid on the horn. After being removed from the car, he reported with a big grin that he was going to leave without mommy and daddy!

Children definitely make the world a happier and more exciting place! This was a wonderful Thanksgiving, but next year Thanksgiving will be even sweeter cause I'll be a GRANDMA!!