Thanksgiving Recap

I realize I'm a bit behind on this... but I had to get photos from my photographer Sean! I love how easily holidays work out for us- we rarely have conflicts with my family's celebrations and Sean's family's celebrations, so we get to attend everything without much of an issue! We actually started this year's Thanksgiving celebrations off a couple weeks earlier than usual due to other family's schedules. First up: dinner at Sean's Aunt and Uncle's with his parents and cousins. We were only missing Sean's brother and sister in law this time around.

After dinner at Sean's aunt and uncle's we played dice. We didn't actually play to win, but it was a ton of fun nonetheless.

Aunt Gail and Uncle Ed

Karen and Darryl- Sean's parents

Guess who won this round?!?

Monica and Jesse

By the end of the night it became fairly obvious that we'd all gone back for seconds on the wine and beer.

Like this. Really? Proving that I've never been able to touch my toes. Aunt Gail can, though!

Thanksgiving Day we always help with a large celebration in Washington, MO, where Sean's family has been organizing and serving meals to attendees and those who sign up for meal deliveries for 19 years, including the local fire and police stations. It's always a lot of fun, a big rush of people working hard and sharing the holiday together, and at the end we get to eat! Then we go to Sean's parents, nap for a bit, and eat some more! It's a pretty awesome day- so awesome (and busy!) that I don't think I've ever gotten any photos of it.

The day after Thanksgiving Sean and I travel to my parents house to celebrate with them- just the four of us most of the time. My mom's great at setting a really attractive table for dinner:

This year we ate duck, cayenne yams, wild rice, stuffing, of course, and a delicious dessert that my mom calls "The Chubby Irish Girl's Dessert" or something like that... regardless, it's not healthy for you, it's frozen, and it's got a pretzel crust, there's some jello involved, whipped cream, pineapple chunks, and probably ten other ingredients that I can't remember. It doesn't sound so artery clogging from the ingredients I do remember, but trust me. I could feel my heart pumping harder the second I took a bite.

And here I am doing a happy dance before dinner, because I. Love. Duck. And Thanksgiving. And I'm thankful I was able to spend so much time with so many wonderful people over the holiday!