Thanksgiving Week at the Farm

Since all the kids were out of school for the full week of Thanksgiving, we loaded up Monday morning headed for the farm. We had a delightful week of family, friends, and fun, and the boys didn't even notice that they never got in the car to leave the farm the whole week. I forgot my camera (eek!), so I've collected pictures from my phone, Mr. Morgan's phone, and our friend Bonnie's super-sweet camera with a great lens. Thanks, Bonnie, for the great family shots!

Every day the boys played in the leaves: They played by themselves, with friends, with Mr. Morgan, with Uncle Travis--all the time. Jumping into the big pile was great fun as was being thrown into the big pile.

Collier would disappear into the pile, but he loved every minute of it.

During Aunt Linda and Uncle Billy's visit, the boys enjoyed lots of leaf-time especially when they got to bury Uncle Billy. He's such a good sport! Linda snapped this sweet picture of Collier.

Claire started all the fun by raking the big pile of leaves in the front yard.

Claire spent several afternoons riding with Susan, Mimi and Pops's neighbor with all the horses. This time Claire got to ride by herself; she was totally excited!

As has become Dad's tradition, he made a big pot of Brunswick stew the day after Thanksgiving.

We were so happy to have the newly engaged couple Travis and Cheri with us at Thanksgiving. We talked a lot about wedding plans!

Mom's table was beautiful and stretched to its limit with all 12 of us around it for the Thanksgiving meal.

We finished our Thanksgiving meal with delicious desserts, and Collier dug right into his piece.

One day after naps, Mimi and Hamilton stole a few moments of quiet together reading Mimi's latest magazine.

Since Billy and Linda wouldn't be coming back at Christmas, the kids enjoyed opening their gifts over the Thanksgiving week. Thomas the train was a big hit.

On Friday we did some skeet shooting on the farm. Though I was not good at shooting skeet, I did feel very Garden & Gun which was cool.

Our dear family friends the Trammells came for some afternoon shooting and a laid-back party. Though there were five kids under four running around everywhere, the noise and mayhem was manageable with adults outnumbering little ones 3:1. Using Bonnie's great camera and lens, I captured a sweet picture of the whole Trammell clan. It's so fun to get everyone together, especially with our growing families. But with all of us spread out from Nashville to Charleston, it doesn't happen often enough.

On one of their many walks, the boys enjoyed some time playing on Pops's trailers.

Our last morning on the farm, we spent some time picking out the church's tree and our family's tree. Both made it back to Charleston safely, and the Leyland Cypress at the church, I think, is the prettiest tree we've ever had there.

Mom's birthday always gets lumped in with Thanksgiving, so we celebrated Saturday morning at breakfast before we headed back to Charleston. We invited Grandma over, too, and I cooked a special breakfast giving Mom the morning off.