Happy (late) Thanksgiving..
Roll Tide!!..
& Hello December...
(all in one photo post)

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, and that December is treating you nicely so far.

Thought I'd share some pictures from our numerous festivities over the last week or so. I hope that's okay with you. :-)

Every couple of years, Gary's birthday rotates around to make him a Turkey Birthday Boy, and this was one such year. So, we had to begin Thanksgiving Day by giving him some gifts (Sydney, of course, had to help him open them all)...

And then we had to move on to our Thanksgiving business, most notably the traditional reading of our blessings. We got out the paper strips that all of us had written on and shared the things we're thankful for with each other (Cute boys! Football! Family! Books! Church! Grace!)...

My favorite moment in the midst of it all was when Sydney read her strips out loud to us. Since she is reading and writing so well, she wrote them all herself. This one said "My. Sisters." Pretty much the sweetest thing ever, huh?

Once we finished with that, we got dressed and ready for the very busy day ahead. Even though we'd be traveling from place to place, we knew that it would be fantastic because, well, it's Thankgiving Day!

Our first stop was Gary's parents, where we ate more food than can possibly be legal. It was asolutely delicious (and his grandmother's dressing lived up to its awesome reputation!)...

After we were sufficiently full (the pants unzipped, the sleepiness closing in), we packed up and headed down to another celebration at my parents' house. Since we couldn't possible eat another thing (at least for another hour or so), we took some time to play football outside...

and pose for some cute pictures as dusk began to settle in...

We were absolutely thrilled that my cousin, Lacy, got to visit this year from Texas, along with her sweet husband Brandon and this angel child...

We had never met Haven, even though we had praying for her since her birth. She has a rare heart condition that is life-threatening (she has spent many, many nights in ICU in Dallas), but she is doing really wonderfully right now and she is surrounded by the most amazing parents and grandparents and friends and people who just shower her with love and let her know that God is taking care of her.

We could not got enough of her sweetness! She smiled all the time, fell in love with everyone she met, and just radiated contentment.

We took SO many pictures of her and with her...

We were not focused solely on Haven (although there's nothing wrong with that!). The girls had a wonderful time with all of their cousins. (There's nothing like cousins, is there?)

(and could be pretty silly with them too...)

The other big thing on the menu (other than a ton of sweet potato pie; seriously, I think I ate an entire pie by myself!) was football! On Thursday night, we even got Haven interested in the Texas-Texas A&M game (thank goodness the Longhorns pulled that one out!)...

On Friday, we all watched (and screamed! and high fived! and hid our eyes!) the Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn. The game was incredibly close and we were all a bit traumatized by it (or at least Delaney and I were), but we won and now all that's standing in the way of a national championship game is Florida in the SEC championship.

We spent two night at Mom and Dad's, and then headed home to enjoy rehearsals for this next weekend's Christmas children's play at church. Sydney is doing so great, and she has a solo!

I absolutely LOVE the play every year and if it doesn't get you totally in the Christmas spirit, then you crazy (or an honest-to-gosh Scrooge!)...

After the rehearsal, our church held its Family Christmas Tree Decorating service. It's one of my favorite celebrations of the season, as we all gather for a potluck meal, lots of great Christmas songs and carols, and a decorating of a tree by all the different families in the church.

Delaney and her friend, Kayla, performed "Jingle Bell Rock" for the audience and it was wonderful! (I wish I'd recorded it, so you could hear Delaney's sweet voice. I need to do that sometime.)

After the service, we came home and decorated OUR Christmas tree, and then did our first night of our Advent together (every Sunday during the Christmas season, we light a candle on our Advent wreath, sing songs, read parts of the Christmas story, and talk about the "real meaning" of the season). It's times like these that make it all worth while...

And now, December is here. It's just hard to believe that the Christmas season is upon us!

I pray that you all had a blessed Thanksgiving, and that your December is starting off well (I would love to hear all about it!). I think of all of you often, and love you bunches.