Thanksgiving

I'm behind on posting but wanted to make sure the wonderful Thanksgiving we experienced this year was recorded. My "Aunt" Becky (my Mom's cousin... the daughter of my grandma's brother) invited us to spend the holiday on their farm. It is a very nostalgic place for me as my Uncle Duke and Aunt Ruth lived here in a home attached to Becky and her husband, Duane's. I spent many hours here during my college years; holidays, weekend dinners with Aunt Ruth's cooking, and even spent a good deal of time working on my hermeneutics paper one summer. Uncle Duke and Aunt Ruth have both passed away so it is bittersweet but also so special to see old faces and watch my girls enjoy this wonderful property.

This is Allyson running all over the property in a game of chase with Duane and Becky's giant dog.

Duane and Becky's son and daughter-in-law, Brent and Melissa have twin girls, Allie and Reese. They are SO adorable!

While we were there, Nicole lost another tooth! 

That night I decided, for the first time in my life, to go Black Friday shopping. Kohls opened at midnight and, since I'm a night owl, I thought it "might" be fun. Wrong. I have only confirmed in my mind that there is just nothing I need that bad. The line itself was more than two hours long and wrapped around the store twice. This guy stood there just so people knew where to get in line. (It was nowhere near the registers.)

The next day, Nicole lost yet ANOTHER tooth! 

She's pretty proud of her holey smile. 

The taking of the annual Christmas portrait

Normally I schedule professional portraits once a year. Our recent sessions have been spring and fall. My plan was to have a Christmas photo shoot this year but, I decided to postpone it so Allyson's scar on her head (see post titled 911) can have a little more time to heal.

But, while trying to do Christmas cards this year I realized I have nothing recent of the entire family. Fortunately, my dad was in town visiting while we were decorating our tree and I thought it would be a good idea to have him just snap a "quick picture." Oh. my. gosh. Photographers earn whatever they charge and more. This was excruciating.

Rather than post the one picture that turned out decent in an effort to make it all look so sweet and perfect, I am going to publish them all, in full disclosure. The good, bad, and ugly. Hopefully it will bring a little laughter and a reminder that, hey, none of us are perfect no matter how it looks on our Christmas cards!