Turkey & dressing on the table!

Sweet pumpkin pie is mighty fine! Brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles. Thanksgiving is a family time!

Yes, my niece was tickled by the fact that I knew a Thanksgiving song. But, anyone who took part in the Bellflower Thanksgiving Feast knew there were Thanksgiving songs! Thanks to facebook, there are a few of us that have reminisced about the Thanksgiving Feasts at Bellflower Elementary. I remember the gym FULL of people, pictures of either me or Kirk dressed up like Indians, and watching ET in the band room the afternoon before Thankgiving break.

Anyhow, the moral of the story is, we got to take part in all of the things that the song mentioned this past week!

We started the festivities Wednesday evening when Kevin and Nicole came over for dinner on their way toward Gilman to visit their family. We had fajitas and margaritas and Claire worked on training "Uncle" Kevin and "Aunt" Nikki on how much fun babies can be!

Thursday morning we got to sleep in just a little before we headed to Greg & Kathy's for lunch with Trever's side of the family. We hung out with Caisey and Maddi until all of the others got there. This was the first Thanksgiving meal we got to spend with the Kuipers/Ficklin side and it was nice to be a part of it.

Of course when there are such adorable girls involved, the camera comes out. Check out these super cute cousins! Can you believe Caisey will be 13 in just 3 short days!

And a group shot of the DeOrnellas family! You'll have to wait for Christmas cards until you see our family shot!

We left Greg & Kathy's and headed toward LeRoy. We made a pit stop to introduce Claire to "Aunt" Barb, "Uncle" Lary and Jessie as well as a handful of other Swigarts hanging out at their house for the holiday.

After out pit stop we headed to the Builta Thanksgiving. This year we celebrated Turkey Day since Kirk celebrated his GOLDEN birthday on Thanksgiving. Claire wasn't sure what to think about the fire in front of them!

Friday Claire and I had the day off and we were lucky enough to have some special visitors. Ria, Graysen & Graham came and hung out with us while I cooked and baked. It was so much more fun to have company than to do it by myself! Plus, I had someone to help entertain Claire while I made a mess of the kitchen!

Friday night we headed back to Greg & Kathy's to bake Christmas cookies. And, of course we had to have a photo shoot or two to go with the cookies.

Claire & Santa....Maddison was long gone.

Gammy and her little girls. I'm working really hard to get Caisey to wear a matching outfit with Claire & Maddison but she refused!

Someone also thought it would be fun for the girls to try on their Christmas dresses and have a photo shoot. I think this pictures shows how successful it was!

And Claire finally got an opportunity to pick on the bigger cousin!
Saturday we headed to our traditional post Thanksgiving cattle sale and then did a little Christmas shopping. Sunday, Trever did more Christmas shopping and we added Reese (Trueline Queen 822) to our cow herd. She's suppose to have a baby in February. Then we headed to Champaign for one final Thanksgiving with the Reads. It sure was rough going back to work on Monday!