mounds of blessings

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. When 25 of my favorite family members (minus many others we love as well, of course) get together, eat way too much food, and are extra aware of our blessings.

In the past, as we sit around the table with stuffed bellies, we've shared our thankfuls. Tears always come. This year, we decided to try to lighten the mood, avoid repeats (everyone's thankful for family and friends!), and not put anyone on the spot. Enter, the thankful tree....

I totally borrowed the idea from some blog I came across, but it was a really fun way to share. Everyone sent me their thankfuls in advance, Hadley and I wrote them on packing labels, and I tied them to some branches that I had. Aesthetically, it worked great.

After the meal, I passed out a branch to everyone, we read the thankfuls out loud, and tried to guess who's was who's. Only a few tears, but I thought it was fun!

Aunt Wendy and Mama Two/Aunt Sue Sue...and just a few casseroles to munch on.

From another angle.

The next morning, we decided we needed a full breakfast because we hadn't eaten enough the day before. Our neighbors had given us a dozen eggs from their chicks. Beautiful and yummy, as always!

Hadley the pancake expert, and Wyche mixing the eggs.

War Eagle. AU - 28, AL - 27.

On the tail-end of our Augusta trip, we got to see my college roommate, Micah, and meet her 3 day old little girl, Millie Kate! We also got to play with Harris, her 15 month old! So fun.

To close out our vacation, we celebrated a dear friend's birthday with a surprise at Red Salt in Marietta.

Christmas decorations went up yesterday...pictures to come! It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!