Thanksgiving Festivities

For Thanksgiving this year, our family made the trek up to Illinois.  We were feeling the itch being that it had been - gasp! - three months since the last time any of us set foot in the state.  In all seriousness, we were all really excited to head home to visit with family.

Our plan was for the weekend to start out pretty low key.  We had a big birthday celebration set up for Papa Wayne's 60th birthday on Saturday, so we decided to just keep it the five of us with Papa Wayne, Grandma Jane, and Aunt Katie.  It was a really nice, laid back Thanksgiving, so easy and fun.  Katie, Jane, and I spent most of the morning in the kitchen cooking, which was so much fun.  I can't even tell you about the crazy amount of food we had for eight people, but it was all so delicious that I can't imagine cutting any of it from the menu.  And that is what Thanksgiving is about, right? :)

We were lucky to have planned a pretty easy day on Thursday because Steve came down with some kind of stomach flu.  On Thanksgiving.  Yuck.  Luckily, it only lasted 18 hours or so, and he was able to come down to sample a little bit of the meal.  Here are some pictures from the day...

Evan setting the table - such a great helper!

 Mmmm... cranberries...

 Mmmm... green beans...

Just so they don't feel left out, I should note we also had turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, cranberry salad, and a ginger-pumpkin dessert.  Now I am kind of wishing for leftovers...

 Jane's adorable little Thanksgiving figurines for our table decor

 The fam