Thanksgiving fun!

Paul and his cousin, Robert
4 generations of Rhiens
Julia, Me and my niece, Aleasha
Paul, Nicole and Taylor
Our family, minus Joanna, Cory and the boys
Some of Mama and Papa Rhien's great grandkids
Cute little Lucy
Julia, Jed and Paul
Laura and Lucy
Dad and Alli
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week and had the rare opportunity to see and spend time with all of our kids and their spouses and all of our grandkids in one week. It was sometimes hectic and chaotic...but mostly it was wonderful. We are all exhausted, but hopefully happy. I know I am.

Thanks, Cory, Joanna, Gabe and Hunter; Jed, Laura, Alli and Lucy; Paul, Nicole and Taylor; and Julia for making our week wonderful. And thanks to all the rest of you in our extended family, for your love and support. We wish we could have seen all of you and spent time with each of you collectively and individually. Just know that we thought of each of you, and love and appreciate you. I think that I felt more of a sense of gratitude than I have ever felt before on Thanksgiving. Just such a sense of fulness and richness in things both tangible and intangible.

We had dinner at Scott's parents and enjoyed time with the extended Rhien family. There were somewhere around 30 of us, including quite a group of little ones. We ate and laughed and had a great time. And then we all gathered in the living room and went around the huge circle and expressed our gratitudes. It was so cute to see the little ones that could talk participate. And then we sang Christmas carols while Nicole played the piano...and the children danced and danced in the middle of the room. What fun!

Paul had arranged a fun activity for our family earlier in the day. He had made a little turkey without feathers and put it on a bulletin board. Then he gave us each 8-10 feathers to color, and we wrote down things that we were thankful for on the feathers. Then we placed them around the turkey. What a fun activity. Joanna and Cory and the boys weren't there for that, because they were with the Ellis' for Thanksgiving, but Paul made feathers for them as well, writing down gratitudes they had expressed on their blog earlier in the week. Here's our little turkey...pretty fun, huh?


Some of us got up EARLY the next day and joined the crazy Black Friday shoppers. Oh my! I ended up at Target 4 times Friday, with different people. Not to mention the other stores we went to. I would get back home from a shopping trip with one group and someone else would say, "Hey, Mom...do you want to come to _________ with us. I need your opinion on __________. So, we shopped and we wrapped and had a good time. But, boy were we beat by the end of the day. We were all trying to get as much of our shopping and wrapping done as possible this weekend, so that we could send our gifts back with each other. What a day!

Julia had to go back on Saturday morning. We were sorry to see her go, but it was great having her home for a whole week...and she'll be back in a couple of weeks for the Christmas holidays. She got to work a few shifts at the radio station, so that was nice. And they are scheduling her to work during her next break as well. She will be done for the semester on Dec. 12...coming right up.

Then Joanna and Cory headed down for a VERY quick trip from Utah. They got here Saturday afternoon and left this morning. They hadn't seen Jed's family or Paul since last Thanksgiving, so they didn't want to miss out on that opportunity. Paul and Nicole had to be back to Los Alamos by today, so they left after visiting with Joanna and her family for just a few hours. And then everyone else left this morning. Good times were hopefully had by all, although I know we all ended the weekend pretty exhausted. Thanks for coming, guys!