I decided that we needed to take our family photo for our Christmas card in our back yard . . on Thanksgiving day . . .because that was one of the few times we were all together all fall. We were going to Mark's mom's house for dinner and so at some point, we would all shower and dress . . .right?? Well, no tripod . . .but I'm a pretty smart woman.
(Oh . . .and I am now the proud owner of a tripod!!)
I set the camera up on the rail of the deck and Lauren helped me figure out how to set the auto timer and we also figured out how to set the continuous shots. I looked through the lens and zeroed in on Glenn - he was our test subject. Look at that gorgeous day in Alabama - end of November - warm enough for shorts on Thanksgiving day!! Then you can see what I snapped below . . .oops - try again. We kept working at it until we propped up the front edge of the camera with folded cardboard and got everything all set up and then everyone took a shower and got dressed . . .and we had a small window of daylight left before going to grandmother's house. Glenn was designated as our runner and we all sat down . . .except for Glenn.
He touched the button and took off at a hard run and I stood up so he could scoot into the picture. We have this whole series of pictures of us shuffling around and they are quite funny!! I didn't put them all on here because I'm sure they are only funny to us but since the shots were continuous, the shots look sort of like a flip book . . .you can see the motion.
We finally ended up using one picture much like this . . and we decided that it was one of our best ever family photos because we were all laughing . . .there were no forced smiles . . .it was good!!
We arrived at Grandmother's house and the carving commenced. I thought it was funny that Mark & George look like bookends in this picture. Identical twins . . what can I say? I love that George has on one of Grandmother's aprons!!!!
Grandmother thinks that she needs to make a variety of pies. I think she succeeded, don't you? I don't even know all the varieties . . .I didn't eat any that night. You can even see more pies stacked in the pie rack beyond.
Grandmother likes to eat "dinner" on Thanksgiving so that we can eat by candlelight. Alice decorated the table for her this year.
We enjoyed having extra friends and family this year. Lauren's mom, Ann, joined us and we also had Sean and Tiffany. They are two of the young adults who come to our group on Tuesday night and they only had the one day off . . .and live out of state . . .and just not enough time to drive home and get back in time for work on Friday. I love having a big group together. I think that the older Mark's mom gets, the more flustered she gets and possibly the more easily flustered . . . so we tried to do a lot for her. I've offered to have Thanksgiving at our house but she still wants to host it and as long as she wants to do so, I want her to be able to do so. As our family grows though, we will have more and more folks and I also want to always be able to invite friends and I just hate for her to be stressed about it. She is always very gracious and has lots of food and shows hospitality . . . I don't remember if this picture was before we ate or after. Everyone was sitting around chatting and it looks like Mark is holding court.
This was our little pumpkin and "straw" display at the foot of the front steps at our house. I love pumpkins and had so much fun picking them out at the farmer's market. I made a couple of trips out there again this year. That trip to the Farmer's Market is always one of my highlights of the fall.
Over the long weekend, Mark and Glenn did the annual cleaning out of the gutters . . .oh my . . .they are way up high!! They always have to have a project!! I guess I should say that MARK always has to have a project . . .and Glenn gets dragged along :-)
It was a good long weekend with only one meltdown from a family member. After hearing about other families and their dysfunction, I feel really blessed. I know that sounds crazy . . .but I really do. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and it WAS GOOD!
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