I did it!

I pulled off my first Thanksgiving. I will admit...it wasn't bad. Everyone brought food, and my Aunt Janie came over the day before to help with the turkey prep and table setting. Every year my aunt does her turkeys the day before, carves them, and refrigerates. Then about 1 1/2 hours before the dinner, she pours some turkey broth into pan of meat, covers it with foil, and steams it in the oven. The turkey was delicious...and I didn't have the pressure of baking and carving them the day of. Perfect!  I will even go on record to say that I'm ready to permanently take over Thanksgiving for both sides of the family.

We slept in until 9...thank you, Jake. Then we had a really relaxing day. I was so excited to see a little bit of snow. I LOVE snow. Just this little bit was a sign from above that it would be a great day.

I was happy with the way the tables looked. I really don't decorate for Thanksgiving. I had a few pumpkins left over from my Halloween decorations, but that was about it. My aunt sent flowers the day before that I used on the kitchen table, and then my mom brought flowers on Thanksgiving Day that went on the dining room table.

I do need to find a set of placemats that actually fit my table!

I told my family that we were to meet in the studio at 3pm...dressed and ready to smile. I needed a family shot for our Christmas card. I have a great shot of Jake and Kate for the front of the card and just needed an inside shot.

Here is the shot going on the front...

And here are the two shots I got of the family. I'm not sure which one I'm using yet.

I'm thinking the top one. I used a tripod to take the shots but realized that my remote didn't work with my new camera. I had to keep crawling over to the tripod to set the timer for each shot. It was a pain in the knees! So I didn't take as many as I would have liked. These two were the only ones of Jake actually looking at the camera with a nice look on his face.

Kate wanted to pose for me again. I love that!!

I got this one of the boys last week.

I really wanted some mom and Jake shots, too. I left the camera on the tripod and asked Kate to hit the shutter button. This is what she got.

I was happy. :)  I have to make a point of getting in front of the camera once in awhile. It's hard to give up control of it, but I'm always glad when I do.

I didn't take many pictures during Thanksgiving dinner because I was so busy getting the food ready and served. I did remember to grab the old camera during family prayer. I had to get video of this.

The only pictures I got of the meal were during dessert time. I was giggling at the line up at the island. They were watching me closely...checking out the dessert options...and making their decisions.

After dessert there was a lot of interest in the studio which totally excited me. If you are ever at my house, don't hesitate to ask me to take your picture in the studio! It's what I love to do!

Since I didn't get Grandma Sally in the studio, I grabbed this shot with all of her girls but one.

I decided not to do a December Daily album this year. I LOVE the album I made last year, but keeping up was so stressful. Instead I'm going to make an effort to post here every other day.

We decorated today. I have some cute pictures to share by Sunday! :)