Isn't it amazing how much more festive it is when someone you don't see all the time comes for a holiday? Well, for us, this Thanksgiving, it was Bradley and RJ. Oh, did we have fun!! You'll notice the theme you've come to expect from this site: food, games, family, silliness, fun in general. So, without further ado...

Food:
 
This was us, gathering for Thanksgiving dinner.

Games:

Pretty much the only difference between Thanksgiving dinner and Monopoly is the game board.

Family:

RJ and Syd (Gracie) ~ soon to be sisters (in law)      and Hope ~ another sister

Silliness:


And, just for fun, the happy couple:







We miss our RJ and Brad!!!!! But, boy oh boy, was it ever fun!

Wow! Our beloved Morse Family came to California ~ everyone except the new Mrs. Jake Mooney, that is. (Hey ~ we missed you guys!) Anyway, what a great thing it was to have so many Xanga folks here to celebrate their being here... BusDiva (Bev), Mark (MarkAlan), Miss Sarah, her mom and brother, and the whole Skaggs family (emttim) who got the Morses here!





People, pizza, and pop ~ party staples!

Where's their pizza??? (These hardy guys were sitting in some serious heat outside!


Oh! And cake. I forgot to say cake. 


Oh, boy... I wish I had a video of Autumn playing piano (beautifully!) and singing (also beautifully) a song she'd written. I wept.  Here she is with Gracie who had just zipped home between evening classes
for a few precious moments with our friends.


Hope and the Morse boys have a deep conversation.... about Star Wars. Think they
need some more cups? (Richard is probably about to tell a joke. What a fun guy!!)


The whole Morse family (minus Amber) sang some beautiful songs to Victoria before she went to bed. Full, rich harmony! Sooo lovely. I was blown away. I had no idea how much talent this family has!


A wi-fi moment, later in the evening. We got to watch a video of what's going
on in the Morse's ministry in Thailand.


And there we are... most of us, anyway.

What a blessed day ~ and one I won't forget. Thank you all for coming! (I think it must have taken Miss Sarah and her family members an hour to get here!) And now our Morses are back safely in Thailand. Thank you, God, for bringing them here. And thank you for getting them home safely. (Hope Carrie made it safely to Bob Jones!)

In my ongoing effort to keep Xanga alive (with a hearty THANK YOU to all of you who still offer at least the occasional post!!) I offer some random pictures with no other consistency factor than that they are of people and animals who live here.

We've had more hatches:



The little white one on her back (also shown below) had some hatching problems. It was a bit overdue which can cause the shell to stick to the baby. She hatched in Hope's hand with a little shell peeling assistance from Gracie.



She's so tiny compared to the sibs, but very cute. Nothing wrong with her vocal cords. You can hear her from anywhere in the county.


Hope and Gracie (Syd) with some fluffies.



This chick was one from the batch from the last post. Isn't she getting big?



Hope. No reason for the picture. It's just Hope.


Although Gracie (Syd) has her first year of college behind her, we're finally going to tie off her high school home school transcript. To graduate (at our house) you have to put on a cap and gown and walk to the front yard to have your picture taken. Not much pomp and circumstance in that, but it got the job done.



The vile kitty graduated too, I guess.

And that's a wrap from our house.  Post if you've got  'em, people!