Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving is over.  I accomplished my goal of having barbeque, cheap mexican, 420 (beer), and oysters.   

The boys and I went to St. Matthews on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  Unbeknownst to my mom, I was traveling with a sweet, little fluff ball as a companion plus three children.  The boys did terrific down, as well as, the dog.  Bill & fam, Kent & fam,  plus us all gave Mom a shishon (half bichon frise, half shitszu) for Christmas.  I'm thinking she half loved us for doing it and half hated us for doing it.  Mom has wanted a small dog for a long time and couple of years ago I made a push for it to Dad.  He vehemently shot me down and told me in no certain terms that if I showed up on the doorstep Christmas morning with a puppy then he was going to disown me.  I decided that I liked belong to my family so I decided against the dog.  I warned Mom multiple times that she was not getting a dog but she thought I was trying to fake her out.  You see, this is how Mom and I worked.  She tells me what she wants and then I come to Dad with the great idea.  This system started when I learned to use the credit card.

Anyway, back to reality.  Mom finally got her little dog and I think they're going to be a great pair.  So, to wrap it up, I have technically given mom two dogs within the last 11 months - Charlie and, now, Suzie.

While in St. Matthews, my friend, Suzie, not the dog the human, came to visit with Conley and Chandler.  The boys and I had a great time playing with our friends and we were sad to see them go.  

Bill and I built a fence on the side of Mom's house to contain Charlie seeing as he was visiting neighbors that aren't a big fan of his.  And, the boys played and played with their cousins.  

On Wednesday, we headed to York to meet David.  Very luckily for us, our neighbors and friends in Virginia come to Charlotte every year for Thanksgiving so David was able to catch a ride down and Andrew picked him up for me.  We gorged ourselves for three days on fabulous food cooked by Mrs. Pat and Aunt Nancy.  We had a great time hanging out with family and on Friday we steamed oysters at the lake.

 Collins sporting his first Christmas outfit of the season.

David and Hughes were exploring the point for a little while . . .

 

until Collins decided to join, too.

Love Him!

 and, Him, too!

Not to leave you thinking Banks was left out - he was in the leaf pile having a blast.

This is the only picture I have to prove that we have a new baby on the Holman side.  Deyna had a sweet, little boy in October and I don't have one picture of him from Thanksgiving.  Probably because I was trying to hold him the entire time to soak in all that "baby-ness" and trying not to think about how big my baby was!

Bellied up to the bar - would rather have hot dogs and macaroni and cheese instead of oysters - go figure?

Banks preferred to park it right in front of the tv.

David and one of his hometown bestfriends, Ron, with Banks and Ron's son, Furman.  The dads were in charge of the smores and nobody got hurt.

And, why does this picture make me think that Collins is going to have a great nickname in college?

This time last year I was nursing a Disney hangover.  Life changes and moves on and it doesn't make it any easier but it does make you appreciate the time that you did have together.  Last Thanksgiving I somehow convinced my parents to join me and boys for a trip to Disney World.  We left David studying for finals.  They were going to leave mid-week and go to the Iron Bowl but decided to forego the game and spend the whole week with me.  We had turkey subs from Publix for our Thanksgiving day meal and I will always remember that week as being one of my happiest.

I had the greatest Dad.  Who other would forego the Iron Bowl to enjoy Disney with his grandsons?  I miss him so much and today is just one of those days.