So Thankful - A Blessed Thanksgiving

Wow, what a Thanksgiving weekend we had!  This will be the longest blog post yet, because we have crammed more into the last five days then I would have thought possible, but I would say we are thankful for a fantastic Thanksgiving (that makes sense, right?).  

The kids were off school on Wednesday, so on Tuesday night they were itching to get out and do something fun.  Sarah headed to the movies with some girls from school and John and Lawrence went on a late night go carting adventure with MT and Sydney.  John has been wanting to do this for a while, and Lawrence surprised him with this fun outing, which met all his expectations and more.  

John's ready to go!

MT's ready to race!

We always have the Young family over the night before Thanksgiving, so Wednesday was spent cooking and preparing for our first of three Thanksgiving feasts.  The kids love helping prepare everything, and I kept them busy with plenty of chores.

John polishes Florencie's silver

Sarah sets the kid's table

John's favorite part is the turkey prep 

Our turkey appetizer!

We had a really nice, relaxing evening with the Youngs...watched lots of funny You Tube videos (and of course the UK game!).  It's a sign of the times when a dinner guest joins the party via Skype...we all missed having Taylor with us, but we got to say hi and share some time with him over the computer.  It was almost like he was here instead of Romania (almost!).  We ate until we were stuffed and then spent the night hanging out.

Catching up with Taylor

Time to feast!

Tony succumbed to the turkey coma

On Thursday morning we got up early and headed to Russell County for the day (only the Antle side was celebrating on Thursday...the Lacys had dinner together on Friday this year).  Everyone got together at the Schureman's lake house, which is the perfect setting for food and fun.  The weather was gorgeous on Friday which meant all the kids (and grown ups too) could enjoy being outside, visiting and playing.  We had a wonderful time seeing them, and I'm so glad we made the trip down.  

Maddox and Keely are part of the newest generation 

Enjoying visiting outside before lunch 

Second cousins, classmates and great friends -
how cool is that?

Sarah and Taylor get crazy on the trampoline

Dad has his annual game for the little kids -
guess how much money is in the jar!  Emory
writes down her guess (to be revealed at Christmas!) 

Touch football after lunch 

After hanging out with the Antle side all afternoon we headed down to the Lacys so that I could visit with Grandmother and see my cousin Brian and his wife Rosanni who were in town with Aunt Sherry and Uncle Bob for the week.  They have three little girls, all about 20 months apart, who are precious!  They were so fun to see, and they absolutely love to play with my dad.  He played "monster" with them the entire time we were there, and they loved every minute.  So cute!

John and Lawrence relax outside while we visit - they
are getting holiday weary! 

Dad lets the little girls take a guess at the money jar

Four generation of Lacy women -
so blessed!

"Uncle Louis" plays with Ashlyn, Ainsley
and Jaden

Best playmate!

So we were really tired on the way home from Russell County, but for some reason that didn't stop us from letting the kids talk us into doing some Black Friday shopping with them.  Lawrence and I went shopping on Black Friday last year, just to experience it one time, and we swore we would never do it again.  This year a lot of the retailers decided to open at midnight, and the kids became obsessed with seeing what this madness was all about.  Since it was already late, we gave in and took them to see the insanity of Black Friday.  Lawrence and John headed to Macy's at midnight, while Sarah and I hit the Target in St. Matthews.  

The line wrapping around Target!

John gets ready to battle the ladies at Macy's

Luckily Sarah realized pretty quickly that this is CRAZY, and decided there was nothing in the store worth buying at this insane hour of the day, so after we walked around the aisles for about twenty minutes we went home.  Lawrence and John had already beat us there, but at least they actually bought a few gifts!

On Friday we stayed around the house and started decorating for Christmas.  That night we headed over to Dick's for our final feast, and this one truly did me in.  MT and Dick had prepared an amazing pork dish and finished off the meal with the state fair blue ribbon winning cake recipe, complete with a caramel icing that had the consistency of FUDGE.  It was soooooo good, and I was soooooo full after dinner that I could barely move, but it was worth it.  

Dick carves the pork masterpiece 

Dick and MT with the cake that did me in!

As if we hadn't done enough at this point, the next morning Lawrence, Dick, Bill and Rich headed to Lexington for the UK vs. Tennessee game.  Uncle Bill and Aunt Analiese were in town (how did I not get a picture with them?!), and the guys had a ball going to the game (sitting in a suite, no less!), and watching UK beat Tennessee for the first time in 26 years.  They didn't storm the field (although I bet they secretly wanted to), but they had a perfect day being together (very cool for one generation of brothers to get to spend the day with another generation of brothers).

Twin brothers, Dick and Bill

I'm not certain they aren't out there in that
crowd!

Great day at Commonwealth Stadium

We didn't spend any of Thanksgiving with the Hamiltons, so that night the kids cooked up a plan to go ice skating together.  We met over at Iceland and Lawrence and I got to hang out and catch up with Joe and Shannon while the kids skated.  

Silly skaters

They begged to go get ice cream and do a sleepover, but the grown ups all agreed this holiday needs to end!!!  We are soooo tired, but have had a ball.  We need to go back to work now to get some rest!  Happy Thanksgiving everyone - we have much to be thankful for!