The Puddles

Ainsley making her apple pie

Madie and her pumpkin pie

Ainsley checking on her pie

The finished products ready to go to Grandma's

Got to do something while the pies are cookin'

Ainsley's talking to Grandma telling her what we are cooking

I swear they are just like each other sometimes, but I don't tell either that.

Playing with all of the good toys at Grandma and Papa's house

A good end to a good day

A year ago, my mom and I were taking turns going down to the Ronald McDonald’s house for Thanksgiving Dinner.  Chris was trying to catch up on sleep from spending all night at the hospital and Ben was in ICU trying to recover from open heart surgery.  This year was way better than last year.  We had a nice relaxing day.  The kids and I woke up early to cook the two pies and the corn casserole that I was suppose to bring.  We had planned on purchasing the pies from a local pie shop, but after discovering it was $20 a pie I decided to bake instead.  Each kid got to pick one thing to make with mom.  I finally sent coffee up to Chris to wake him up around 9:30.  Coffee helps him to wake up happy on these kind of busy days.  I thought for sure that we were going to leave by 10:30.  Nope. The pies took longer to cook.  But oh they smelled good in the house.  Then Chris decided to clean out my car.  Vacuum. Wipe it down.  The works.  It was so nice, but the timing could have been better. But his heart was in the right place.   We finally headed out to Grandma and Papa Grace’s house.  The food was good. The company was good. Madie was disappointed that none of her cousins were there, but she managed to have a good time once she realized that she had less people to share Grandma and Papa with.  Much better.   We headed home after the football game ended.  But we managed to wash and put away all of the dishes for Grandma.  Even Chris dried dishes.  Again a good ending to a good day.  I remember thinking last year that I would look forward to being on the other side of this.  It felt like we might never see the end of that drama last year and yet here we are. Thanksgiving meant a lot this year.  We have so much to be thankful for.