Giving Thanks at Our House...

This year, for a variety of reasons, we hosted Thanksgiving at our house.  Most years we celebrate with either "his" family or "my" family, but this was one of those years where we said everyone's welcome...come on out!  And they did!  We had  a great group this year, with the usual suspects along with Great Grandma Curtis in from Colorado and Lois, Richard and Marsha from Kansas (well, also Texas, but they still drove over 5 hours to come and eat with us!).   All in all, there were 14 of us here yesterday.  If you've been to the little green house, you know that it was pretty crowded in here, but it wasn't bad at all...everyone visited and kind of did their own thing (as much as you can in a space like this), and we're grateful the weather was nice so the deck was available, as well.  The food was wonderful (thanks for everyone who brought something to the table), and I'm particularly proud of James' turkey.  There were several phone consultations, but this is the second time that James has done a turkey all by himself, and it was great!  We actually weren't horribly late serving (also a surprise if you've been here), and had the oven cooperated we would have been right on time.  As it was, we were about 4oish minutes behind schedule, but I don't think anyone got too anxious.  To have that many people, and that many different families, together is just an awesome thing, and those of you who have big families know this kind of thing can go either way.  But in our book, it was a success--it felt so good to have Lois cooking in our kitchen (we had to call in the Weseloh girls on the gravy, as it's not something we make around here...ever), and Marsha walking around with her camera.  It felt like...home.  This year especially we are grateful for our family, near and far, and for the opportunity to share this day and our table(s).  :)  Happy Thanksgiving!