Friend Thanksgiving continued...

 

 So after the ornament exhange. We did our White Elephant/Dirty Santa exchange. 

 

 

 

There was definetly a variety of items this year. 

 

Next the kids opened their gifts. We missed not giving Jessica and DJ their gifts. They had a little stack in the corner. 

 

 

Lastly we did some family pics. 

 

 

 Joe's mom joined in to experience the Friend Family fun. 

 The Girls 

 The Guys - take 5 or 6.. Cooper didn't really want to cooperate.

 The Guys - take 10. Finally got him.. sorta.

 The Whole Gang. Well not quite. My middle brother David, Leanna, Jessica and DJ couldn't make the trip because my brother wasn't feeling well. We really missed having them here. We had a great time! But it just wasn't quite complete since everyone wasn't there.

The Friend Family Thanksgiving in STL

 

  The head chefs. 

 

My first Thanksgiving hosting. I had a lot to learn. 

Here I'm excited that the turkey looks edible... HA!

 

 

Getting ready to pray and starting eating. 

 

Cooper wasn't thrilled about Thanksgiving dinner. Since he doesn't like to try new things. But he liked sitting with his cousins.

 

The kids table. 

 

 

The table set and ready to go. I was excited to use my nice wine glasses.

After dinner.  Cooper and his buddy - cousin Brady. 

Getting ready to play our ornament exchange.

Brady and his crown ornament. 

Lorelee and her Star Wars ornament.

Cooper loved the crown, but it ended up getting stollen from him. 

Brady and Dan fighting over the Star Wars ornament.

Visitors from Chicago

Well this year because of schedule issues we actually are going to celebrate Thanksgiving the day after Thanksgiving. But Thanksgiving we had some more special guests arrive.

My brother Dan from Chicago and Lorelee. And their pet English bulldog Achilles.

It was great to spend some time catching up with them. Since we don't get to see them much. I fixed dinner and we just sat around and hung out. 

 They played basketball.

 And Cooper wrestled with Uncle Dan.