Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving was pretty great this year if I say so myself! I love hanging out with everyone eating good food without it being quite as hectic as Christmas day. (Don't get me wrong, though, I love Christmas, too!)

Plus, I didn't have to work Thanksgiving this year which makes it more relaxing.

We started the festivities, actually, on Tuesday when my cousins and two aunts came to our house. As I said in my goals, I have been trying to have them up for a sleep over. Last year, at Thanksgiving we went out to eat and to a movie. So now it looks like we have a tradition to get together at Thanksgiving! Eight of us ate at Red Lobster then came to my house and watched Crazy, Stupid, Love down in our den on the big screen. Everybody stayed the night (minus one) talking about girly stuff into the wee hours! (well, wee hours by my standards) Tyler made us a big breakfast and some of us went shopping on Wednesday.

Then we had more family time by staying at my brothers Wednesday night. Garyn and Ansley love spending the nights with their cousins!

Thursday, we had Thanksgiving with my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

My sweetie and I...

More playing with cousins...

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And there's always some singing going on in my family, Ansley was learning all about that....

Then after all the food and playing, daddy and Ansley needed a nap....

One part I love about holidays is that it brings us all together. Even when it isn't your blood family, friends and family are always spending time together that time normally doesn't allow. I have a lot of family that aren't my blood relatives in my life that have always treated me as such. My sister n' laws family has always done just that. My brother and sister n' law have been together since I was 6 or 7 so her family have watched me grow up. Whenever I was younger, I went to their holiday gatherings. Now, when I can, I still try to go stop by. Tyler has always felt welcomed, as well , in fact he looks forward to going because of all the yummy food! We went there Thursday evening for a bit. Most of them hadn't met Ansley yet so that was fun to show her off. I will have to get some pictures, though, next time!

I was also bad and didn't get pictures at Tyler's family Thanksgiving dinner. I attempted to get pictures from my mother n' law and actually had this post ready before Christmas. However, I was unable and will need to add them later! We celebrated on Saturday after Thanksgiving. I enjoy doing that, too,  so we can spend a lot of time with both of our families. One of my favorite parts was Garyn sitting in his grand grandmothers lap playing Rummy.

We enjoy our family time in the Rich household!