A Surprise to be Thankful for

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  This year, we had a lot to be thankful for.  My sister Jess and her family took a road trip from their home in Kentucky and drove all the way out here to spend Thanksgiving with us.  Little did everyone know, my sister Angela and her husband were planning a trip of their own to surprise everyone on Thanksgiving!  Zenith and I were the only ones in on it since we picked them up at the airport on Wednesday night.  They stayed at our house and then we all headed over to my parents house where the all of my sisters and their families would be.

We pulled off the surprise by switching William and Emma's carseats, and Zenith and I went into the house first with Emma in William's carseat while Angie and Thomas waited outside the door with William.  I didn't want to be obvious holding my camera and recording, so all you see is the wall at first, but you can hear Mom's reaction when she looks into the carseat and notices it's not William.

Another interesting part of our Thanksgiving was that we had a pretty good size snow storm the night before which caused the power to go out.  Mom and Dad have a generator which runs some lights and a few outlets, but we couldn't hook up the stove or oven.  Their next door neighbor graciously offered to cook the turkey at their place since they have a double oven, and we pooled together our crockpots and were able to keep dishes warm that we had prepared the previous day.

We had a couple outlets upstairs to plug in what we needed

We ran an extension cord to the living room so we could have some light there

Priority of course went to the coffee machine ;)

Kaite and Dan brought their camping stove so we could cook the potatoes

And in the basement we had our crockpots plugged in to keep what was already cooked warm

But despite the power outage, everyone did a wonderful job of pulling together a wonderful Thanksgiving.

My sister Jess and her youngest, Thomas

He couldn't decide which beer he wanted, so he drank both...at once ;)

All the Patterson girls together!

Dad and all his sons-in-law

Dinner by candlelight since there weren't many lights

All the guys smoking the pipes Dad made for them while enjoying Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey

Sherlock and Watson :P

Mom and Dad with 12 out of 13 grandchildren (Tommy was already in bed)

Our entire family minus little T

Jess and Chris are off to spend some time with his family and Angie and Thomas will be around until Wednesday.  It's been so great spending time with my sisters again and seeing their beautiful families as they expand every year.

I have so much to be thankful for this year.  We have a such wonderful family, here and overseas, along with many good friends.  We have a zealous priest who has done so many great things in our parish and helping all of us grow spiritually.  I have a strong, loving husband who takes excellent care of us, and an adorable son who brightens my life every day.  We've had many crosses this year, but found strength in them through the grace of God for which I am very thankful.

As we approach the First Sunday of Advent, may we focus our gaze on that little manger, now empty but soon to be the bed of Our Divine Savior, Our Infant King.  Let us prepare for the coming of Christ, emptying ourselves of all worldly things so that when He arrives, He may find that we have prepared a place in our hearts for Him.  What a shame it would be for Him to arrive and find there is no room for Him, as there was no room in the inn at Bethlehem for a tiny Baby.  

Stay warm and Happy Saturday! (Happy Sunday to our Aussie friends and family) :)

~Lindsay