My Mom fell in April of 2012 and, after surgery and a few days in the hospital, had to go to a nursing home My Dad passed away Sept. 20, 2012. When Thanksgiving came, my mom was not able to make it to Stephenville, so my sister had a small gathering at her house, and Les and I celebrated with our children and grandchildren. Mom passed away this July. My oldest sisters husband's health is very bad, and he can't make the trip here from Ft. Worth now. So, once again, we celebrated here, and my sisters gathered in Ft. Worth. Emily's husband's mother joined us, along with his brother and his family, so we had a big group.
The arrangement is totally random. Kids are not with parents, everyone scattered. So sweet.
We celebrated Thanksgiving as we usually do...a huge meal, lots of outside playing and visiting, then scouring the Black Friday adds, then leftovers for supper.
Melody and Aspen spent the night with us, in the guest room we finished up on Wednesday.
It is a very old fashioned room, using curtains that were my mother's and one of her quilts.
Melody offered to keep Nora, so Katy and Kyle stayed at the Hampton Inn, leaving Nora overnight for the very first time. Katy put her to bed at 7:30, before they left, and she slept until after 7am, when Les woke her up!!!!
For years, the girls and I got up early to shop on Black Friday. We did some actual Christmas shopping, but it was mostly a social event. This year, we didn't shop. The sales starting on Thursday night just sort of spoils it for us. We did meet for our traditional breakfast together. That is just about the only thing that we do, just the 5 of us, with no husbands or kids. We have the chance to really have in depth conversations.
Friday night, we put up our Christmas tree, just me and Les. Today he put up lights while I did some things in the house. The funny thing is that I am not at all bothered with the change to tradition...not being with the whole family for Thanksgiving, not having it at my own house, putting up decorations by ourselves... change is part of life. I wish I had a picture of our early Thanksgivings. I have some, just not anywhere I can get to them. Here is one picture of our family about the time that we started hosting the big family dinners. Katy is 4 or 5, about like Kylie or Aspen now. A new generation!
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