And, so the Thanksgiving Weekend comes to a close.  It’s been a sweet one for the Owens’.

On Thursday, we celebrated Thanksgiving…..of course, I told you, Joy was in charge of the feast….

It was wonderful, as we knew it would be, and we all enjoyed it!

Sweet Tara came bringing John Thomas, who is into everything and talking a mile a minute!  So precious!

And we were all joined by our friend Danielle and her fiance, Zach.  It was great to have them with us, as well.

After lunch…Joy cleaned the kitchen…and we set about decorating Pop’s house for Christmas.  That was the part I was in charge of…lest you think I was a slackard and just let everyone else do the work!  And, as you see here…I managed to put my whole self into the job…

This is not finished, by the way…but I pretty well was by the time I did this cute little trick two times!!!

While we ladies, including Suzanne and Tara worked…Tommy tried to keep John Thomas corralled…

And, Don tried his best to entertain Levi….

Lori came in a little later she had to work at the hospital today…  She helped Joy divide the food that was left…

I struggled to get one picture with Sweet Levi….  Isn’t his shirt cute?  His Lulu made it for him…:-)

But all he wanted was his Mama…

And all Pop wanted was another piece of pumpkin pie!

As you can see…after the fiasco with John Thomas and Levi (last post) we didn’t even try any more posed pictures.

Posed or not…the family was together and these pictures show us working together…all doing our part…(Ian got the things out of the attic…Adam will put them back…Will was hunting  a deer for another feast)…having fun just being together.  All the things a family is supposed to do.  What a blessed day!

AND—HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SWEET DAUGHTER IN LOVE!  WHAT A BLESSING YOU ARE TO US ALL!  I LOVE YOU, MY DEAR!

AND, THEN…on Friday evening, Ian announced that he was cooking a meal for us.  He snagged Adam to help him and they went to the grocery store and the butcher shop…they got all the ingredients they needed…and came home to begin the creations.  He informed us we were having Roast Pork Loin stuffed with Rosemary, Bacon and Onion…..Spoon Bread…..Pear Crostata and Apple Crostata.  And, cook it, he did.  Yelling to Adam and Alex to ‘stir’ or ‘turn the heat down’ and to Don to ‘hurry up and grate that cheese’.  And, my only contribution was to set the table and fix the glasses of tea.  Why, friends, we could have been eating in the fanciest restaurant in Anytown, USA.  It was delicious!  He did a wonderful job at preparing all three.  Just look at these……..(and that was no store bought dough, either)

What was left…

And this was all that was left of the roast pork…

I know you are not used to seeing pics of good food on my blog…but, this was too good not to share!

On Saturday, Ian and Adam did computer work.  While Suzanne was out he called and asked her to cook some hamburgers.  She adds ‘magical ingredients’ when she mixes up her hamburgers and they are so good.  Of course, WE didn’t get to sample them this time!  🙂

Sunday was a sweet time at church, and Ian headed out to Birmingham early.  This is Monday and Joy and Pop have gone to Birmingham for his first check up since his eye surgery.

Life is full of blessings for us, but we were so sad that Alex could not be with us on Thanksgiving, but he was able to get up for a while to help Ian with his feast.  Alex’s health continues to be a matter of prayer for us, and we are content with the fact that God’s hears our prayers.  He continues to give us all strength…and we are ever hopeful that we will discover help for him at some point in time.  God is good…all the time.

Now…let the countdown to Christmas begin!