Thanks "for" Giving

 I'm not going to get all gushy and even pretend that my Thanksgiving was amazing. Because - honestly - it was the worst Thanksgiving ever! It "blew", quite literally. Wednesday night the family was together and ate a delightful little meal, only to have the grim reaper himself knocking on all our doors at 1am. Yup-all 7 of us (less Mark and the babies) were hit with food poisoning in the nth degree. How did Mark escape you wonder? He served his mission in Brazil so his belly was prepped for this kind of situation. Its the only thing I can figure. So - instead of celebrating all that we're grateful for over turkey and pie, we were cursing life over the porcelain throne. So I say Thanks-for-Giving me the runs - I lost 6 pounds in 1 day!

A day late and a little weak in the bellies, we forced ourselves to gather on Friday and have some food. Mostly we had to empty Mom's fridge before the masses left the next morning with more food than 2 adults can consume alone. Spencer and Cameron, only a week apart, were troopers in the festivities. My SIL Lesley is my role model mom and does a great job at taking it all in stride. I find when I'm more chill like her, having Cameron around is a breeze.

My new roll recipe is addictive as all get out. A shout out to Julie and her famous rolls. I make them all the time and just love that they are always perfect! Makes me feel good and domestic when the crowds are raving about the rolls. Mom was a trooper and made up supper, despite wanting to just sit and be as far away from food as possible. We all sat around a beautifully decorated table, and picked at the food like little people on little diets. So sad. Mark undoubtedly had his choice of anything he wanted - with too many scoops of ice cream to make up for everyone else who passed it up.

It wasn't something that I want to do again. In fact, it was awful. I was sad that I didn't get any shots of my brother and his families visit. And I did only got one photo of the lad with his cousins. Dreadful. Here's to hoping for a better holiday season and more success in the photo department.

As we round out my favorite season, and welcome in winter - I do recognize that I indeed have so much to be thankful for. I somehow, miraculously, escaped death for one. And that is a pretty big deal.