Monday, November 26, 2012

Photos from Thanksgiving week ...


It was a busy week last week ... Thanksgiving has come and gone for another year. I went out to Rockford with a close friend last weekend and listened to the high school choir sing some carols and then the mayor made a speech and "lit" the lights of the town to launch the Christmas season.  
Kelly's family was getting together down in Indiana for the actual day of Thanksgiving, so we decided to have a turkey dinner ahead of time ~ we got together at my beach house last Sunday and celebrated with thankful hearts. Brendan is cutting lots of teeth, but he still enjoyed himself exploring my little house. 
Brendan is a fast crawler now and can get anywhere he wishes. I love to watch him go! 


I can barely remember what life was like without Brendan ... he showed up and stole all of our hearts! 


Dylan is playing "Shut the Box" and Brendan is helping him ...

On Tuesday, mom and I were chauffeured down to Detroit to spend the holiday at my sisters! My nieces and their kiddos were going to be visiting and it isn't often that I get to see them.

This is Terry showing Nolan how to play billiards. Terry and Ruthanne have moved into the house that Terry and his dad built many years ago, and it is now beautifully renovated. 
This is my niece, Shelley, and her husband, Bob. They have two beautiful boys: Matthew and Nolan. Bob works with Apple computers and Shelley does a million things all at the same time ... one of the most interesting is that she is a marvelous illustrator (published!) of children's books. 
Ruthanne and Shelley on their three-season porch


 My niece, Shari, and her husband, Mark, were also in town from Appleton, Wisconsin. Esme' and Asher are playing with their grandma (my sis) out on the porch. Ruthanne has lots and lots of fun toys to play with ... I am very envious of this Mattel racetrack! I'd like one here at my beach house!
 This is Esme', my great-niece, and my sister's only granddaughter. Isn't she darling?
 And this is Matthew Owen, the very first grandchild of my sis. He is a beautiful boy in so many ways.
This is my niece, Shari! I hadn't seen her in over two years!


It was so good to see Shelley again ... she and Bob
now live in the house where Shelley grew up!


 This is Nana getting acquainted with Esme'. It's been over two years since we've seen her and she is now almost 4-1/2. She talks up a storm and sounds like a teenager, which is very fun to listen to.
This is Mark and Asher enjoying the scrumptious dinner Ruthanne prepared. My sister is a marvelous cook. 
 Shari and Mark didn't come to visit until the day after Thanksgiving. It was so fun to have them all together and watch their kids play together. 
Shari and Asher

We also got to do some "FaceTime" with my brother David in Florida. Isn't technology so amazing?!

This is my brother, David, and Zach (Rachel's 2nd son), and Daniel (my nephew) and Rachel (my niece). We visited long-distance for quite awhile without any cost (if you subtract the exorbitant amount we paid for our computers).  

Christmas is four weeks from tomorrow ... I have much preparation yet to do! 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow, Carol! Great post. It was so great having you here! You were such a help, and it was fun to be with you. Thanksgiving can be a stressful time with all the cooking and cleaning up, but it is great to be with family!! I love you!

Mom Jones said...

It was wonderful to be with you, Ruthanne, and so much fun to see all of your beautiful family. The time always goes by too quickly it seems! Thanks so much for having us.