Thanksgiving Time!

Ever since I can remember, we have celebrated Thanksgiving weekend with my mom's side of the family - The O'Brien's. Even when we lived in Maryland... we made the long drive up to this area to all be together. My mom has a large family and it is so incredible how many in her family still make it a priority to all be together during this time. We all seem to go our separate ways for Christmas, which is ok and only makes this time even more special. Of course, through the years... not everyone can always be there, but we all know that we want to be there together. It is such fun to celebrate together and even more fun to watch my girls love the time so much as well.

This is my cousin, Terrance. He is a pretty quiet guy, but when he was holding Colin... big smiles were seen by both!
Doesn't Natalie look so grown up with her hip pushed out to the side and holding Colin. Of course, I don't let her walk around with him (although she would like to) but this was fun to have her feel so grown up holding him.

The Thanksgiving day table.

My mom is so impressive. This year may have been a record high with 28 people for dinner. She always makes it a point to have us all sit down together for this meal. Look at how her entire house was rearranged to make it happen. Thank you, mom!

My brother and his girlfriend, Amanda with Natalie and Liam. Liam just turned 7 and is also in the 1st grade. He is my cousin's son and Natalie and him LOVE each other. It is so wild to see how excited they are when they get to spend time together. Sadly, we really only see Liam 2x/yr (thanksgiving and for a summer weekend) but yet they always seem to act like fast friends as soon as they are together. It is as if they know the special bond they have together as family.

Natalie and Colin full of smiles.

This is my cousin Katy. She and her sister, Erin, stayed at our house this weekend and totally spoiled my girls. It was great to have some time with just them at our house. Outside of the fact that they are both super successful, they are also just incredible people with such warmth and are filled with fun. They never seemed to tire,...they were always willing to play "just one more game" with the girls.

Here is the cutest baby boy at the dinner table (well actually he slept through dinner, but you know what I mean!)

This is me and my cousin, Jen, right after we ran in the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. We are both mom's of three and have used running to create our own time... it was great to be in this race with her (although she did finish way ahead of me - but who's counting??)

Running in this turkey trot (5K) has become a tradition and part of our thanksgiving morning. I love it! The idea of doing something healthy for me and good for the community on a day full of so much food and goodness, just seems right. I think this is the 6th year that we have made this part of our day. Sadly, this year... we missed a couple of our co-runners. My brother is recovering from a broken foot and my other cousin- Jessie, was out of town for the weekend. No worries, November 2009 will be here before we know it!

Thank you to all who make this weekend so special to me, my girls and my family.