Thanksgiving

 Our family kicked off the Thanksgiving season with our annual "thankful tree." I love seeing what the kids add to the tree each year. We certainly have many blessings to thank our Heavenly Father for!

We celebrated the holiday by attending church on Thanksgiving Eve and then spending the entire Thanksgiving Day at my parents' house. Our entire family of 24 (!) was able to join together, plus one of Chelsea's cousins who attends Concordia Austin. A full household of 25 made for a busy and noisy, yet very fun holiday. As is typical these days, the oldest boy cousins wanted to play game after game of football. A few of the uncles joined in at times, and Abby went outside as a cheerleader too. What a great cousin!

Inside, the crew (and Jason especially) enjoyed watching some football.

Jason's Lions had some great moments (hence the chest bump with Matt) but unfortunately ended up with a loss that day.

A group of younger cousins, with Abby serving as director, put on a series of plays for the family. Abby had actually planned out a script and brought costumes from home for their first play. It was so cute!

We played a lot of small group games throughout the afternoon too.

Little Selah even got her first official piano lesson. Ha! I loved that she was genuinely pushing down on my finger in order to play the notes. She seemed to love the music!

And of course, we enjoyed an absolutely amazing Thanksgiving feast. Each family group brought something to share for the meal, but Grammy and Papa cooked up the delicious turkey, homemade rolls, and several extra sides too. It was all sooo very tasty! Here are all the table groups of family members-- everyone but Selah pictured. What a blessing to live so close to all these special people!

We certainly have many reasons to give thanks to the Lord. 

He is good, and His love endures forever!