Turkey Day and More to Say...

We celebrated the Thanksgiving season with Aaron's side of the family this year as Mom and Dad P are serving in the mission field already and Aaron's parents are preparing to leave.  Knowing we would have company for the extended weekend with various activities on the schedule, Aaron drove the kids to our 'usual spot' to search for our Christmas tree before everybody arrived.  I took a pass this year as I went to lunch with a dear friend to celebrate her birthday:).

Brinley loves to take nature pictures.

Girls hauling down one of the trees.

Aaron was inspired to purchase two permits for two trees this year and randomly stopped at the home of a family in our area that struggles financially.  Their children were so excited to be given a real tree (usually use one made from a wooden pallet) and it was a great reminder for our own kids to count their many blessings.

Decorating the tree/house for Christmas.

Elsie's turn to put the star on top - a coveted responsibility:).

We've attempted putting up Christmas lights in years' past.  We've even purchased the lights you reflect off the house to make it look like we're festive.  We resorted to using red/green bulbs in our porch lights.  Well, this year Aaron took drastic measures to fulfill an unfulfilled childhood dream - he hired Lawn Buddies to install the real deal.  When I wrote and told Tanner we had real Christmas lights on the house, he was flabbergasted and hoped we would repeat this for next year so he could actually see them.  Having painted this house, we KNOW how steep the pitch is and were happy to have someone else up on the ladder!

Our Thanksgiving feast was a group effort though hosted at Chris & Julia's house.  They have a flair for the fancy and we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon talking, eating, laughing and catching up.

fancy appetizers

Aaron and Bryant

Naturally, the incredible meats were prepared by Chris.

Brinley and cousin, Polly.

Brinley and cousin, Oliver.

Oh, did I mention the food was rather tasty?  I especially enjoyed the stuffing Alyssa made from scratch.  It was a labor of love but fascinating to watch her do her 'knife work' as she's learned in the restaurant business while living in Washington state.  We had Erica's family, Bryant's family, us, Matt's family, Chris's family and Bob and Janene.  Cam and his boys weren't feeling well.

Aaron took a plate pic just for G-ma P.

Happy Thanksgiving!  

And the weekend party is just beginning...