Thanksgiving Thoughts

The view at the back door of my mom's house...

I didn't take any pictures except for these two above...this was our first Thanksgiving without Dad. 

That made it hard, hard for us all, but especially hard for Mom.  She asked her brother to offer prayer before we ate.  I was so relieved...not sure why but Uncle Jim praying was very comforting. 

Dad always prayed before our Thanksgiving meal.  I always wondered if this would be his last Thanksgiving...if we would ever hear him pray again.  This was 2009 and it was really his last time to pray before a Thanksgiving meal.

This was 2008, he was teaching Sunday school the weekend after Thanksgiving at the little church where he was buried.  I was happy to see him teach there...

Here he was in 2007, right after my great niece Laney was born.  There are five generations here...I am blessed to have my grandparents still, they are both in their 90s and live in an apartment.

Dad had cancer for 7 years and was given just months to live when he was diagnosed.  I always felt blessed that he outlived the statistics and lived 7 years more, the majority of them good years without pain, without a lot of medical intervention.

Now for the rest of the photos that were taken by my nephew Beau...actually I am just posting a few of them...he probably took a 100 photos total.  I have seen Beau's work before and he takes some amusing pics!  Here is a self portrait...

and a shot of Mom's living room...

and here we have a Best Buy commercial captured on TV.

a random shot into the kitchen...

my great niece Audrey who was a bit sickly and didn't feel well...

John (another nephew) on the couch and my son Sam watching TV...

and the planning stage of the Black Friday extravaganza.

The lovely hardwood floors

and Charlie snuggling Baby Audrey.

And what would Thanksgiving be without a football game...

All in all, it was a great Thanksgiving with family and wonderful food. 

Another first over with....