Thankfull for Fullness. Full and Fullfilled.

Patrick was a little overwhelmed at the large family Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday and this year I was just about as thankful as a mom could be.  

Thankful for family. Thankful for my country. Thankful for the Lord seeing us through another year. Thankful for the here and now. I was recently asked at our church small group what was the best thing about this past Thanksgiving and what was the worst.  My answer was the same for both.  The worst thing about this Thanksgiving was that it was our first Thanksgiving without all my children home.  I was a little sad about it at first, but I was so thankful for where those two were.  My #1 son left for the army on Nov. 18 on a 5 year contract to do special forces.  He ate army food on his first Thanksgiving away from family.  But this is right where God has him, right where he wants to be and right where he needs to be.  Surprisingly, I didn't even shed a tear.  My #2 son stayed back at college for Thanksgiving to avoid the long drive since he will be coming home anyway in 2 weeks.  He ate dinner at the Dean of his college's house.  We missed them both but life's a constant series of choices.  Choose to look at who's not there at your table or choose to look at who is.  Choose to see the problems and troubles we've all had over the last year, or look at all the blessings. Choose to be thankful that we are all together, no matter how imperfect we may be. 
We had 24 for Thanksgiving dinner.  All of them family and one special friend who is like family.  We also had 2 additional dogs brought by relatives......it was crazy, but crazy fun!  So thankful. So full.  So fulfilled. 

We awoke on Thanksgiving morning to see the first pictures of our soldier on facebook.  He's the one right up front and looks so cute with his new haircut. 

Some of the crowd.  Tired and full after a fun day.

We played Christmas songs with Mommom. 

We played silly games.  And we laughed and laughed.