Thanksgiving Weekend 2013

Happy 2 days after Thanksgiving!  Are you still full too?  I am and yet I keep eating...can anyone explain this?

I assume you are all very interested in what our family did for the big day so as you can imagine, I took tons of pictures.  And added some narration.  If you make it all the way to the end it will be like you were with us.  I wish you had been. 

I'll start on Monday when we got a surprise text from Ben.  Because of the impending winter storm warning, he could leave a day early.  Yippeee!  So we changed around some of our plans (like Scott going to get him) and I zoomed up to the beautiful Adirondacks the next morning to pick him up.  In order to beat the storm, I left early and had picked him up by noon and we were home before 4.  He talked to me the whole way.  So I rewarded him with a quick stop at McDonald's for our favorite - egg nog milkshakes.

It was wonderful to come home to a beautiful snowy yard.  Drew had gotten in earlier.  All five of us safe and sound.  Thank the Lord. 

We were invited to a friend's house for soup and pie.  I love the idea of sneaking in some friend time before spending the holiday with family.  We had so much fun.

Wednesday everyone slept in until nearly noon.  Yikes - will I ever make it past 6:30 am?  Still, I had lots to do in the kitchen.

Later we went out shopping.  Often this is so the kids can pick out things their grandparents can buy them.  It seems to be a new tradition.  It was fun.

Thanksgiving morning I woke them with cinnamon rolls and we watched the parade. Then we all piled into the family truckster and headed to be with our family in Syracuse.  It never gets old to go on a road trip with the whole gang in the van.  This year was a little different though.  See if you pick up on it.

Need another clue?

Didn't see that coming. One day you are strapping them in car seats and the next they are driving you to go see Grandma.

As we rode along, I glanced at a magazine.  This was one of the articles.  Funny.

We were invited to Scott's brother Tim's house for dinner.  His wife Chris prepared a delicious meal and set a beautiful table.  She is very creative.  Each of us had a card at our spot that we would read aloud when it was our turn.  On the cards was The Proclamation of Thanksgiving address given by Abraham Lincoln in 1863.  Very cool.  And meaningful.  Not to mention many big words.  I loved it.  I've copied it at the bottom of this post for those of you who are interested in reading it.

Here we are with Scott's mom, the other Burtis boys, and Chris's parents, Lou and Linda, who are also very important to us.

Here is some of the feast.  We did not leave the table hungry or comfortable.

Later we rolled ourselves back into the van and went to my sister Renee's house for dessert.  My brother, mother and some of my nephews were there.  I must have been in a sugar-induced coma because I failed to take any pictures.

On the way home, we continued listening to the Andy Stanley sermons we started on the way up.  (His current series titled 'Right in the Eye") We needed all the kids to get caught up so we can watch #4 together this coming Sunday morning.  If you have teenagers/young adults all of you should watch or listen to it too.  So powerful!  You can watch it here.

Of course, there is no end to our gratitude to God for the many good gifts He gives.  We also give thanks for the gifts we didn't ask for or want this year because through them we have learned much more about God than we previously had experienced. This makes us even more thankful that He chose us to be His.

Then we put on our jammies (I wish I could say they were all matching but alas that ship seems to have sailed) and gathered around for another family tradition.  We watched this.  And highlighted our favorite lines.  And laughed like a bunch of goofy kids. It was a good day.

Hope you enjoyed being with us - we love you all.

Part 2 - "The Transformation from Thanksgiving to Christmas a.k.a. the REST of the weekend" will soon be posted.  Here's a sneak peek.

Goodbye Thanksgiving - Hello Christmas!

_______________________________________________________
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln