Thanksgiving Weekend

I don't need a holiday to prompt me to be thankful. I am thankful each and every day that I wake up and can live the life God has given to me. But I guess we do need a holiday to get my family back together for awhile. You know, this family:

Back in the day, Vic and Karen had 4 small Rugh girls. Well, those small girls grew up and got married- now doubling the size of the family... 4 was soon 8. The two eldest Rugh girls have brought Vic and Karen some (adorable) grandchildren... 8 total as of now. Which brings us to this equation: 4+4=8 and 8+8=16! Well, and who knows what God has in store. As far as we know, we have 2 more grandchildren on the way! (Katie due in January and Jeff and Sarah due whenever God chooses...lol.) So that's halfway to 5 times the size of the family! (Okay- somebody is doing waaaaaaaaay too much math...

Speaking of family, and speaking of Thanksgiving...

My cousin, Sally, joined us this year! She is living about 7 hours from where my sister (Katie) and her family live. So she ventured to their home for a few days and then joined them in their journey down to Illinois this weekend. It was great to see Sally again. It's been over 3 yrs since I last saw her! She has a really neat story, if you wanna learn about it. (Her blog is listed under those that I follow... she's the "Travels with Chunky" blog.)

As you noticed, Molly and Matt were home too. They are missionaries in Texas right now. But Matt's parents got them train tickets to come "home" for Thanksgiving. They visited with Matt's family for part of it and also shared some time with us. It was great to have them home. They sure are missed!!!

If you want to learn more about their adventures in Texas, Molly also blogs! (Go figure!) She's the "Bugs and Sunshine" blog down there. Check them out too!

Please be remembering Molly (and Matt) in your prayers this week. Molly is having surgery on Tuesday to remove her gall bladder. She's been very sick (but is such a trooper!). She is looking forward to feeling better after the surgery. But please pray for her and for her recovery. Also pray for Matt, who isn't too fond of hospitals.

And then there is my sister, Katie...


I hadn't seen her in almost 2 yrs... maybe closer to a year and a half. She, her husband, and their 5 children made it down here for the weekend. (Of course, as I mentioned, they brought Sally too... for a grand total of 8 people in their car!) It was so good to spend some time with her family. The kids are growing (way too) quickly, but are such little angels. (Although, I am their auntie and can tend to be biased.)


It was so fun to see the next generation playing together. Jessica's girls were so excited for their cousins to come visit. And it was quite evident that the feeling was mutual with the way that they all interacted.

I don't think that Grandpa Rugh or Mor Mor really enjoyed all the kids, though. Too bad, huh?

We put on a talent show, which was really neat! The two older girls (Laurel-7 and Evie-6) each sang a song about Jesus... and WOW! Not only were they good at the songs they did, but to hear small children singing such powerful words is amazing!

There was some guitar playing (and some singing along!), thanks to Aunt Molly who shared her guitar with the kiddos.

Oh! And the food! Did I mention the food yet? Wow! That was some pretty amazing cooking! Thank you to everybody in my family that made this meal possible! It was over and beyond delicious. (Jeffrey was especially pleased because my dad made ham- Jeff's favorite food. And somebody- we aren't really sure who, since it was a joint effort- made mashed potatoes... another of Jeffrey's favorites.)

Speaking of the mashed potatoes. They were a joint effort. We had people (of all ages!) peeling potatoes, Katie cut them up, and I have no clue who began boiling them. All I know is suddenly, somebody asked "Who's in charge of the potatoes?" And then about 3 voices (mine included) said "Not me!" Fortunately, we did not over boil them. Katie began the mashing and I took over for awhile. After that, somebody (again, not sure who... Jessica, maybe?) finished them up. Let me show you the kiddos peeling potatoes:

Sally helped out a TON! One of the wonderful things she did was to make 3 pies for us while she was at Katie's. Upon arrival, both Sally and Laurel would not tell any of us what one of the pies was made of. They called it the mystery pie. Laurel had me guessing, but after while, I asked "Does it have fruit in it?" "Nope." "Vegetables?" "Nope." "Meat?" "Nope." "Pasta?" "Nope." And then Uncle Matt asked if it was a cow pie. "Nope." And Uncle Jeff asked if it was "Shoo Fly Pie." "Nope." Come to find out... it was vinegar pie. It didn't taste half bad... but it sure didn't smell very yummy!

As wonderful as this day was, I have to admit... I was a little surprised that nobody ended up in the ER. The toddlers bumped into things several times. Eloise went down about a hundred times. I cut my finger on a tin can (and couldn't get it to stop bleeding!). Laurel fell down the slide and got a (major!) bloody nose. Peyton was peeling potatoes and accidentally scraped his finger with the peeler. I know one other thing happened with Peyton, but I can't remember what it was.

Oh. And Jessica's lucky I didn't beat her up...

If you can't read it- her shirt says "It's no secret that I'm Daddy's favorite." Yeah... her joke was great, but my reaction was apparently priceless. LOL. It's okay, Jess... believe what you want. (Cute outfit, though!)

It was a wonderful weekend.