November 27

 Happy Thanksgiving!

We have much to be thankful for, this year and always. Today I am reminded how especially thankful I am for Chris. He is the peanut butter to my jelly, and the best Daddy and partner I could possibly imagine. Today he helped me get everything ready to host 16 people for Thanksgiving dinner. His duties? Entertain the children, clean, and do anything else that didn't require cooking skills.

He entertained this child beautifully.

I should have taken video of these two as they rolled and tickled on the bed. Lily squealed with delight.

She loves her daddy!

All month long, we have each made one "Thank You Leaf" each night at dinner. I'm not thankful for Photoshop right now, because it has mysteriously not saved my edits to this photo. But this is our tree this year.

Caleb's red leaves say that he is thankful for: God healed my cold, Mrs. L (his kindergarten teacher), candy, snuggles, Lily, Daisy I love her, Legos, Yoey, snow, Caleb, no school tomorrow, Mommy was the Mystery Reader, Daddy, all the fruits we can eat in summer, Grandma, sleep, Chuck E. Cheese, Jesus, Mommy likes flowers that I pick, my light sceptre that I had long long ago, God because He is createful.

Daisy's yellow leaves say that she is thankful for: Tigerlily, my Tiger, Lily, cleaning up everything, Caleb, Daddy, Mario Kart, Mommy, leaves, Grandma, Yoey, birds bananas frogs, Daddy is staying home tomorrow, clouds, music, reading books and eating pizza, pizza, trees, Daisy, flowers, blocks because I like building castles and towers, sky, dogs.

Don't count, because we definitely missed a few days. But the kids really enjoyed doing their leaf each day, and it's fun to see how they become capable of bigger thoughts each year.

You can see our tree from last year here.

2 card tables, 4 long tables, 1 roll of brown paper, 48 crayons in 3 jars, 14 chairs, 1 high chair, 1 booster, 3 strands of lights, 1 drink table, 5 types of wine, 2 bottles of sparkling grape juice,1 buffet with 10 dishes of food including 2 types of sweet potatoes...

And one happy family.

(That's Ryan's darling girlfriend Alana in the front, and we're missing Sally, whose carpal tunnel syndrome was causing her too much pain to attend.)

Lily loved snuggle time with Grandad!

And I can tell by Daisy's hand and serious expression that she was telling Grandad a very serious - and very detailed - story about something. She's clearly gesturing with her hand, the way she only does with things that are very important.

Hi Jace!

Ryan took the above photos of Daisy and Jace, as well as this bathroom mirror selfie.

Caleb and Max snuck off to play in Caleb's room. Caleb later told me that the best part of his day was playing Legos with Maxie and putting superheroes in his little Christmas tree.

(Also: I let the children watch the video of "What Does the Fox Say?" three times in a row today. Then Caleb asked that I make him a fox mask like the ones the dancers wear. Done. He colored it himself, and he wore it all evening.)

After dinner, Chris helped me clear some dishes away. At first I thought he was just being sweet and helpful, until I walked into the kitchen and found this:

He was shoveling leftover food off the plate and into his mouth.

It wasn't even his plate.

Dude had ulterior motives.

(Don't worry - it was Lily's plate. That makes it less gross, right? I don't care. I laughed for a solid minute at the sight of my husband hovering over the trash can, surreptitiously stuffing discarded food into his face.)

And one last picture of Jace, because seriously. How cute is he?

Noticeably absent are photos of my children, which is because Chris and I enjoyed the luxury of having a house full of family members to entertain our children. We sat around and ate pie instead of tending to our darlings. Thus, no pictures of them, and I don't regret it one bit.

Another thing to be thankful for? Caleb went 24 hours without ibuprofren. I think he is definitely on the mend. Poor kid.