Thanksgiving 2009

First of all, I want to say that only just realized two days ago that Christmas is next week. I was feeling really good about it until I discovered how close it was! Then I stressed out and spent an entire afternoon wrapping gifts. Thankfully most of my shopping is done. I wanted to have everything finished before the end of November and I just about accomplished that goal. However, my dad is nearly impossible to buy for. That has been the biggest stumping gift ever this year, especially since he seems to get more difficult as the years go on. Still haven't gotten him anything. My mom isn't any help either. Not only is she also hard to shop for {though not as bad as my dad} she also never knows what he wants. BUT this year she was really good at giving me a hint for a gift for my lil' brother, "S", whose name I have for Christmas {since there isn't a single member of my family except for my cousin who reads this blog, I figure it's okay to post that}. My brother is 16 and a jock. He plays football, participates in wrestling and track & field and loves all things "boy". But my mom told me that he LOVES the first Twilight movie. Apparently he borrowed it from my sister and watched it all the time {still hasn't given it back to her, last I heard}! When my mom told me, I couldn't stop laughing!! I've never seen Twilight {nor read the books . . . I have this little rebellious streak in me that stops me from doing things everyone else is doing just because I don't want to do what everyone else is doing . . . so I've never gotten into Twilight} but I've also never heard a guy who actually enjoyed the movie until my little brother - especially a guy who doesn't do chick-flicks at all! So that's what I got him for Christmas and I'm excited to see his face!

Speaking of my family, we got to spend a good amount of time with them the weekend before Thanksgiving this year. We went down on Friday afternoon and stayed until Monday morning. It was a fun time and so good to visit them again {we hadn't been down to their house since this past summer!}. I have bunches of pictures and that's how I'm going to tell this story:

My dad. He & mom are hard to get pics of. They'll never, ever smile for a photo. Right after I snapped this candid, dad stuck his tongue out at me. Classic.

I'm so grateful that all my brothers and sisters really love Dan. It makes things so fun for me! Dan also likes them. And he likes to tickle them {everyone in my family -except me ... I'm the odd one in more ways than one - is hopelessly ticklish and we all love it!}. He was tickling my littlest sis, "D", and she was wiggling too much. So Dan put his fingers together and said, "Go like this." She eagerly played along but was a little surprised when Dan grabbed a hold of her fingers with one hand and tickled her with the other. She'd been tricked!

My family likes to play and wrestle and tickle each other. It doesn't usually last long because it's a small house & and bunch of noise but it sure is fun while it lasts!

Multiple tickling - this was hilarious!

Miss "M" laughing at the efforts of the siblings

Oh, look! They're hugging!

Or something like that . . .

Dan helping make pie crusts. His first time ever.

My big, grown up, buff lil' bro, "J".

My family also likes to play basketball. I'm not sure, but I think that started when lil' sis "A" and I started playing church ball. We'd go to the church and practice and play all the time. We would always gang-up on my dad who was always bigger than us and would stuff us all the time. So rude. But we played hard and usually had a really good time . I don't know if that's where the BB passion started but it's a favorite family pastime, especially for the bros. "J" played in HS and "S" plays church ball {he does school wrestling so he can't play BB for the school}. We went twice to play on Saturday while we were visiting. I haven't played with them for 4 years, since I had my knee surgery. They play just a little too rough for me now but it sure is fun to watch- especially since my bros are big enough now to give dad a taste of his own medicine! I really love seeing that!

Dad joining in on the fun.

I just had to post this pic. "S" sure looks like he's gonna die from the work of this game!

Dad's not quite as sure on his feet as he was 8 or 9 years ago! :)

Ha! Loved this one too. Everyone is looking up, even the littlest one over on the left, even if she is looking in a direction other than where the ball is!

Oh! There was a little accident. When we first started playing, the littlest ones, "C" and "D", who were probably just big enough to run around when first started, were really too small to really get into the game with the rest of us. So they were basically assigned to one another to "block" and we'd give the ball to one of them as they'd go running down the court with it and then one of the other of us would put it through the hoop {I personally always liked this method since I wasn't ever good at dribbling . . . I'm a bit clumsy}. Anyway, as they've gotten older, the rules would change a bit, like "C" wasn't allowed to take the ball away from "D" cuz he was getting bigger than her. Well, apparently, the rules need to change again. Little brother "C" is following his brothers' footsteps and starting to really play the game. In the heat of it all, he forgets that "D" is still not quite old enough for that, nor really interested in playing "for real." He was trying to steal the ball and knocked her over - she landed on her nose, the poor thing. She had a swollen, bruised lip and was a little upset that her brother would do something like that to her, but it was entirely accidental and he felt awful. She didn't play anymore and "C" would randomly come to check on her to make sure she was okay. I think mostly it was her pride that was hurt.

It's my sweetie making a basket!!

Mmm, pie. You can see the "D" feels much better by the time this picture was taken. She really loved her pie. So did "R".

It's my lil' married sis and her hubby! Say hello to "A" and "b-i-l D" . . . I guess this initial thing could get confusing. Hm. Maybe I should think of something else.

Here's another of "C". He's always been an adorable kid and I just loved this shot. Characteristically curious and quiet. Love it!

And for the final shot, this is "S". The one who like Twilight.

Gosh, I sure do love my family! We really had a good time visiting, playing games, eating way too much food and relaxing.