Thanksgiving Weekend 2014, Part One

SO MUCH to write about.  SO MANY pictures to share!!  I hate when I get so behind in blogging, but  when you're having fun with a houseful of people, sitting at the computer just doesn't happen.

Our Thanksgiving week was decked with very beautiful snow.  I know I'll probably have snow pictures for the next six months, but I just can't ignore how beautiful it was this week.  Here are pics taken from my windows!

Ray and Thyda left Virginia Beach on Wednesday evening and arrived at our place around 2 AM.  I never heard them come in!  It was wonderful to have them here and finally have time to catch up with them.  We hadn't seen Thyda since June or Ray since August.  Of course Leo, their sweet, sweet dog was along too.

I took this picture of them in the afternoon as we waited for the others to arrive.  Sam and Jenn had Destiny with them and stopped at Jenn's home near Harrisburg first for their Thanksgiving dinner.  Fred and Deb put Bjorn on the train in Lancaster and Dick picked him up at the Lewistown station around 3:45.  Anthony, Lori, and Austin headed to New York that day to spend the holiday weekend with her folks

By 5:30 everyone was here and we were enjoying our feast of turkey, stuffing, baked corn, sweet potato pudding, green bean casserole, cranberry applesauce, pie, and ice cream.

This precious little girl!!  I fell so in love with her this weekend!!  She is feisty, she is nosey, she is loud, she LOVES the mall, and she loves me.  (-:

Bless Sammy's heart.  He's been telling me for months that he wants to come to my house and read books.  All through the meal he kept asking if we could read books now.   As I was holding Bianca we noticed that Sammy had given up on me and went to Grandpa with his books!  

Jammy time. 

Sammy got lots of help building what was first of all a daycare, but in the end was a zoo.

We got out this new toy that Dick had brought home from Mommy Shoppe donations one time.  Destiny, Ray and Thyda worked on building it, and we ended up with an amazing, functioning  marble roller coaster. 

Sammy wanted to take pictures with my camera.  Most of them turned out with his finger over the lens, but here are some that didn't turn out too bad!

We also played a few rounds of "Dictionary", our homemade version of Balderdash.  Destiny absolutely associates Thanksgiving with playing that game, and she begged and pleaded till she found at least four people to play.  As usual, we had plenty of good laughs.  

We found places for everyone to lay their heads for the next three nights.  Sam, Jenn, and Bianca had the guest room, Sammy slept in our room, Thdya, Ray, and Leo had the sofa and loveseat, Destiny had a cot beside the dining room table, and Bjorn had an air mattress here in the den.  

That will be all for this post.   I'll finish up tomorrow evening, hopefully.