quick trip for turkey and family

Woo-hoo!  The Christmas decorations are going up and we have plans to go cut a tree next Monday - maybe it will provide just enough motivation to get through my last week of classwork.  It's unbelievable to think we are already in December - I'm not even sure that I had a Thanksgiving this year, it went so fast!

We traveled to my brother's this time and met up with the rest of my family there, but because Brandon was preaching on Sunday we only stayed for 2 days.  Just enough time to get in lots of eating, golf (for Brandon) and Christmas shopping (for me) - Oh, and of course no doubt, tons of spoiling for Drew (ok, all of us).  We actually met my parents in Ohio the Thursday before and gave them Drew a little early because our days before the trip were packed full and kind of stressful.  We had a fun girls/guys overnighter (girls with me at our house and guys with Bran at another leader's apartment), a Thanksgiving service project day, Brandon preaching/me teaching on Sunday, along with a big meeting, several youth visits ..oh, and a dramatic hair dye experience for me.  :) I also crammed in a lot of schoolwork so I had less to do in SC because we did not break for the holiday.  Needless to say, those days were full and the 2-day vacation was a treat!  We actually really needed it because lately, we have been facing a great deal of discouragement in some ministry situations  and being around family is always a help with that.  There was a lot of opportunity for laughter and my favorite, holding my sweet baby nephew, Isaac!  We got some pics of all the little boys, so I will post a few, but my fav is that last one.  :)   (Don't hate me dad!)

Ok, so I realize I may be the only one to laugh at this even after an explanation, but I'm still posting it.   About midway through our Thanksgiving meal, someone realized that my dad was not only eating from the large turkey serving plate, but also using the giant fork that went with it.  He had no idea.  After he had carved a bunch of the turkey, my sweet dad let everyone else go through and fill their plates first, so apparently what was left looked like a normal serving.  Maybe he thought one of us was nice enough to start a plate for him, so he took it, filled it with the rest of the yummies and went on the enjoy the meal - until we clued in on what had happened.  Of course that will forever be his plate from this point on.  Poor guy- no respect.  Really, it's probably a more appropriate size for a Thanksgiving plate anyways. -I don't think he even had to go back for seconds.