Fabulous Family

And when I say family, I mean A LOT of family. It was absolutely wonderful! The weekend before Josiah's birthday, my mom, my sister, Stephanie, and her family (after a 2 day trip!!) arrived. We saw a few sights and hit the largest craft store on the east coast, The Country House.

Then it was Josiah's big day. As the day before Thanksgiving, we didn't want it lost in the preparations. We had nothing to worry about. He partied very well with his cousins until Grammy and Papa arrived at lunch time (can we say early, early morning flight). A little later in the afternoon, Aunt Sydnee, Uncle Dale, Parker and Ellee arrived after a day's drive from Ohio.

The family count: 9- adults, 1- 13 yr. old and 8- 10 yrs and under. Our little house was filled to the brim (thankfully we have 2.5 bathrooms), but we wouldn't have wanted it any other way. I think we rubbed along quite fabulously despite the close quarters.

Happy to open gifts!

Thank you Auntie Stephie, for this caught-the-moment pic. Ok, credit for all the photos need to be given to her...

Aunt Ashlee got the right thing! He wears them everywhere. He justifies this as "you never know when you might need to hike!"

It was one big crazy fest, let me tell you!

I love this grin. Pardon the fuzzy hair. We did it after the morning gift opening, but after a day of partying, eating and bowling, by the time it was time for cake, well...definitely back to undone-do-ness.

He is grinning about his fabbity-fab "OSU" cheesecake. He loves Kit's cheesecake (Grammy's recipe), but was thinking of straying for a regular cake if he could have colored frosting, etc. When he found out his daddy could make him his very own black and orange cheesecake, there was no looking away again!

This is what too much partying and sugar does to you...be warned...

The next day was Thanksgiving. With all the hungry mouths to feed, I didn't even have an urge to whip out my camera. Probably a good thing. With Kit's knack for clicking embarrassingly ugly moments, way to many of us would have been remembered by our posterity for our ability to shovel the food in (I say many in hopes I wasn't the only one eating myself sick!). I wanted everyone to feel like this was their Thanksgiving, so I had each family pick a couple of dishes they have as their traditional fare. It was delicious! Kit fried us a yummo turkey (my dad's turkey is amazing, but I will have to say I could not do without Kit's rubbed, injected and fried turkey again...yummm), Grammy took care of the dressing, Sydnee made the broccoli casserole and cranberry freeze, Steph took care of many, many pies and everything else was a group effort. Yu-ummm!

The day after Thanksgiving was NOT spent hitting the stores. Although Kit and my brother-in-law perused the ads just in case. After Josiah's baptism (an upcoming post, I promise), we decided to head out and visit historical Jamestown. It is amazing to live so close to early american history. I can't wait to go back when we have a little more time. With the damp cold weather, we got the barest hint of what the poor settlers dealt with. It definitely put technology, medical knowledge, warm clothes and a heated home on my list of things to be thankful for.

Cousins posing by the unrealistic statue of Pocahontas. One of the site workers laughingly mentioned how too like Disney's version she was. In reality, by all accounts, she was about 12 years old, short and rather sturdily built. Yeah...not like Disney's at all. This statue is one no one will admit to accepting, he told us. It doesn't look like Parker minds holding her hand, though. ;)

Again, please excuse the bad hair! Agggh! So, looking past the do, I love these boys so much.

I am so, so very grateful of everyone's sacrifices and efforts to make it here. I know we have many loved ones who simply couldn't make it, but to those who could and did, a heart-felt Thank You.