Thanksgiving...Take 1

Happy Thanksgiving Take 1 commenced last night! Seems all of my many families go here and there and everywhere these days, so we have Thanksgivings early, on time and late! (Lucky us, right?) Thanksgiving last night was at my mom's house. We had the usual crowd: Mom and Al, Josie (Al's daughter), Gigi, Rosey, Mary, Emilio, Brinley, my little family and the new addition of the Conca Family-Dave, Cody, Autumn and Antonio.

Since Dave's wife, and our good friend Kim's passing, (you may remember her from this post), the Concas have become regular members of all of our families. We often pick the kids up from school several days a week and lucky for all of our kids, they come over and play! It took several visits for my kids to really 'let loose' with Autumn and Antonio, but now, they talk about them night and day and constantly ask when Autumn and "An-to-nee-no" are coming over. It's pretty safe to say they are my kids most favorite 'big kid friends.' And never were there two more gracious kids than Autumn and Antonio. They are so, so, so sweet and helpful. It was a great addition having them over for Thanksgiving.

And certainly this is a household for giving thanks. Between my mom and Al and even Gigi, they care for my kids 4, sometimes 5 days a week, and are there at a moment's notice when one of us needs anything. They pretty much rock. Seriously. My mom watches Three 3 year olds AND a 1 year old, and doesn't miss a beat! She's apparently the talk of Preschool as several of  the other moms watch her effortlessly escort 4 kids out of the car, through the gates, up to the doors, AND sign them in and out every Thursday and Friday. She is pretty flippin amazing. And I definitely don't tell her enough. {I love you, Mom}

So here are some photos from the evening.

Brinley and Josie

(Hunter will tell you that Josie lives in a fire truck.) 

In real life, she just works on one.  :) 

Place Settings 

Hunter and Colton sampling the punch, 'aka' pink soda, as they kept calling it.  :)

The Table

It's not a Thanksgiving Celebration unless there's football on, right? 

(OMG, did those words just come out of MY mouth??)

Mary cooking

Mom cooking

Treasure Island Salad 

Me cooking

The kids' table (or bar)

How many adults does it take to open a box of wine? 

Rosey, Autumn, Mary, Emilio

Brian (in red), Me, Josie, Antonio, Dave, Cody, Emilio

Gigi enjoying her 103rd Thanksgiving!! How crazy is that? 

Could she be any cuter, seriously? She is amazing. 

And then came group photo time. 

We're kind of obsessed with the multiple shots in a row deal, because it's our moment to feel like supermodels...Here we are testing out the scene....

Pose, 

Pose, 

and Pose! 

Sorry about the darkness..

I make up for the darkness with Hunter's cheesy smile.

The Concas, being 'normal', as Mary instructed them to do! 

See that old kid on the right? Yeah...He's a sophomore in HS, AND we share our birthday, AND I had him in Kindergarten...a few years ago...Holy Oldness, Batman! The other two kiddos Mary had in kindergarten! We love them! We loved Kim just as much and don't let a single day pass by without thinking about her...

And then came the big group shot! 

I've included the outtakes as well...cuz that's just funny stuff. 

And the rest of the night was spent hula hooping (or Lula Hooping, as Ethan calls it in the second video). Enjoy! And happy Thanksgiving to you! 

Colton's hula hooping debut

Ethan's Lula Hooping

Hunter, shaking those little hips! 

That's all folks!