My Favorite Holiday of the Year

I LOVE THANKSGIVING!!!

It is by far my favorite holiday of the year. The crisp autumn weather, seeing my breath in the air, the smell of my favorite foods baking and cooking, warming up by the fire, ....I have nothing but wonderful memories of family gatherings, great food and fun games played in an environment filled with thankfulness and  love for one another. Don't misunderstand, I love Christmas too, but for me Thanksgiving has become the holiday that focuses on Love, Family and an attitude of Thankfulness toward our God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Our Thanksgiving tradition, no matter where we are, is to gather around us what family and friends we can, share in the preparing and enjoying of a wonderful meal, take time to reminisce and talk about what we are thankful for and give thanks to God for all of the wonderful blessings he has bestowed  upon us as we visit with one another, play games or sing, laugh and just enjoy each others company.

With Thanksgiving I don't lose my focus on what the holiday is about. There is no worrying about who I am supposed to purchase a gift for or if I made the correct choice in colognes, clothes or electronics, if the toy my child wants will still be available when I finally have the money for it or getting all the outside lights strung up and working, finding the perfect tree and the time to decorate it and the house, finding money for all the "Christmas Cheer" that I am expected to supply, making sure everyone who sent me a Christmas Card gets one in return,  not to mention the food, gifts and fancy clothes for parties that start the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Then there's chorus rehearsal and making "homemade" gifts that you hope the receiver will appreciate, and goodies for work, etc, etc, etc. All of these things have become part of our Christmas traditions that I look forward to, but not with the same amount of peace and contentment in my heart that I get from Thanksgiving. There seems to be more of an excited and "rushed" feeling at Christmas, up to Christmas Eve, then, somehow, miraculously the peace of the season sets in.

Maybe I love Thanksgiving because its not about me or you but about giving thanks in the simplest way possible. By spending time with each other while sharing a delicious meal and remembering how blessed we are to know our Heavenly Father loves us and is mindful of us always.
Because I love Thanksgiving so much, I purposefully boycott all things Christmas (except Chorus rehearsal, which is a must) until after the Thanksgiving Holiday has ended. I don't participate in Black Friday because I am trying to make this wonderful feeling last 1 more day.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!
May you find contentment and peace this year! 

Trial Update

An update on the Trial for the Murderers of Irwin and Shirley Marchand and Doug Dooley.  It's been 2 yrs and 9 months since the murders. Michael Aikens, the former employee of Irwin's, went to trial on Oct. 1, 2013 pleading guilty. Here is the newpaper article about the results. I just thought some of you might be interested.

http://theadvocate.com/home/7440609-125/man-sentenced-to-three-life

Hangin' Out With this Sweet Miss!!!

This little sweetie just cracks me up with her antics! You never know what to expect when you are trying to keep track of Reagan!

Recently I heard the saying "Silence is Golden, until you have children, then silence is suspicious!" Truer words were never spoken. 

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Skye and Reagan getting ready for a ride. 

Uncle Cody and Reagan get ready to take a turn around the driveway.

So, while Cody and Skye were gone on a short ride, I went to look for Miss Reagan.

Sugar, have you seen Reagan? She had a rawhide stick treat for you. 

Ahhhhh look, Sugar found Reagan and the Rawhide treat! 

Oh sweet girl. You make life sooooo fun! 

Sure do love you little girl!!!!

Playing at being a Photographer

I went to Madison to sit with 8 of my grandchildren while their parents, Shiloh and Jason, went to Tennessee to run in the Ragnar Relay. We had fun playing, cleaning and just being together. After the volleyball games on Saturday we went out in the yard and played at being photographers and models. Here are the results of our playing around. We sure had a lot of fun! 

From youngest to oldest -

Micah

Mary Alice

Adam

Lydia

Preston

Adrianna

What do you mean saying he is the class clown? How can that be?

Jonas

Emily

8 is great!!!

Poor Odi, she is doing so good keeping a smile on her face as Micah pulls her hair out by the roots. Haha! 

These shorties have grown a lot when you compare this year's pyramid to the photo we took on the beach last September. 

 You can check out pics from last year here.

My handsome boys...

..and my lovely girls!

And one little shoulder Angel! 

(For those of you who don't get the Shoulder Angel Reference, Check out Studio C)

Oh how I love being Grandma!

Playing Around in Alabama!

Since living here in Meridian, MS, Darryl and I are able to visit Shiloh, Jason and their family up in Madison, AL (near Huntsville) and enjoy our grandchildren . At the fist of October we visited and Shiloh and Jason took us to the Huntsville Botanical Gardens. For this outing I handed my camera over to Jonas, Emily and Adrianna and they were my official photographers. What a delight. Following are some pictures of our fun. 

The "Bugs life" exhibits in the garden give you the perspective of being a bug. 

The train village covered about 1200 square feet and was marvelous.

Checkers anyone?

 There are so many fun "hands on" exhibits in the gardens and the children are really engaged and encouraged to play with them! The sweet little boy in the middle in the above photo is Garret. Shiloh babysits for him about 6 days a week.

Being October the gardens were hosting a "Scare Crow" contest. This years theme was Television/movie shows or stars. See how many you can guess of the few I put up during this post. 

Awwww.... nothing like getting a little mushy in front of the grandkids! 

The kitchen herb Garden. ....

This is a dream garden for me. 

And they had a Hammock park area where you can rest for a few minutes.

And yes, these were all Pawley's Island hammocks. 

I had to take a picture of the Minion scarecrow for Gid the Kid!

One of my favorites was the fairy garden with a Hobbit door and toadstools, etc. 

I think I will have to make myself a Fairy Garden inside the next dome we build. 

It was very peaceful...

We played and played all day...

The last stop was the butterfly house, it was small and beautiful. I would like to have this inside my next dome house! 

We finished the day of with 3 buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken and all the fixin's while watching General Conference.