Thanksgiving Holiday 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!  We spent a great Thanksgiving Day at my parent's house!  My sister flew in on Wednesday night, and it was so fun to see her.  Isaac was so happy to see "EmEm" and wanted her to play trucks, trains, and airplanes with him right away.  :)  My mom made an incredible Thanksgiving dinner.  Here she is as the master hostess carving our turkey (or, as Isaac says, "dobble dobble tur-tee").  

The Macy's Parade is one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving, so we had a lot of fun watching it on Thursday morning.  While Dave & I were busy baking pies for Thanksgiving dinner, Isaac kept himself busy.   At one point, we looked up & saw him watching the parade like this!  (Never mind my ironing board!)  ;) 

After a great Thanksgiving dinner, everyone hung around and either napped (us) or played games (mostly everyone else).  :)  Later that evening we all ate leftovers and watched old family movies.  After just a few scenes, my stomach hurt from laughing so, so hard.  Isaac was in awe of the home videos and stood in front of the TV like this:



On Friday morning, my sweet husband willingly offered (without coercion or even suggestion on my part) to put up the Christmas tree.  :)  Isaac thought it was a blast and wanted to help the entire time.  He helped Dave drag the boxes out of the attic and down the stairs, pull the tree branches out of the box, and set them up.  The best part was when we got out all the ornaments.  For the past 3 Christmases, we've given Isaac a special ornament.  I was surprised when he remembered his Fisher-Price airplane ornament from last year.  This year, we gave him a "dodo" ornament.  :) 

My friend Meghan gave me a sweet reminder that it's okay to have an "imperfect" tree when you have a little one.  Isaac had so much fun hanging the ornaments on the tree that morning.  For nearly an hour, Isaac hung ornament after ornament and named every one, at least as best as he could.   Granted, most of the ornaments he hung are all in one section of the tree.  :)  But, it was a sweet time together, and Meghan's right--someday I'll miss his little hands helping me decorate...so for now, I'm enjoying my tree with clumped ornaments.  :) 

On Saturday morning, we headed out to Decatur for a morning of four-wheeling.  My cousin Nate bought one this year, and then he decided Isaac needed one too.  Most recently, my dad's gotten in on the fun.  :)  I had no idea it was going to be SO cold & windy, so after one lap around, I spent most of my time in front of the heater in our car.  But, Isaac was a trooper!  I love how he's standing up on his 4-wheeler in this picture. 



See the huge star hanging from the crane in this picture?

If you're driving on 287 in Decatur this Christmas season, you can see it lit up at night from nearly a mile away! 

 Our last big family event for Thanksgiving weekend was celebrating my dad's and Nate's birthdays!

Though it isn't easy, God is showing me that it is possible to have joy even while my heart is hurting. 

A few days before Thanksgiving, I was overcome again with sadness for the babies we lost earlier this year.  But, through my tears, God was so sweet to remind me of all the things I do have to be thankful for...and,  even in the midst of my sadness, I don't want to miss those sweet blessings.  

Whether your heart is heavy or happy this Thanksgiving holiday, we hope you too had a sweet time of remembering the blessings in your life.  Love, the Rinns