I can’t believe it’s already been a week since Thanksgiving!  Where in the world does the time go?

This year more than ever, I’ve been made so much more aware of how short our time is here on earth and how important family is.  So, when mom told me a while back that ALL of her siblings and their kids as well as my brother, grandma and my granddad’s brother and his wife (my great aunt and uncle) were going to be there, I started to get excited.  I have NO idea when all of us were together last.  I saw everyone at my granddad’s funeral a couple of years ago, but my brother wasn’t able to go up to Virginia for that.  So really, I honestly don’t know when we were all together last.  And it was good.  Like, really good.  It was nice to just sit around a table and talk over delicious food (made by my brother the chef!) and chill out and watch football and then crash for the night.

The day after, we ventured down to DC (well, Arlington, really) to decorate my mom’s apartment for Christmas and to exchange gifts between the four of us.  And because of the excitement of the Cowboys/Redskins game the night before, we went to see our “Thanksgiving movie” the day after Thanksgiving.  I don’t know when we started to go see movies on Thanksgiving and Christmas day, but I love it!!  There’s just something really fun about going to the theater in the middle of the day during the week :-)  Then, that night, my brother took us to a restaurant in DC called The Pig.  Seriously.  And we ate so. much food.  If you think you had a lot on Thanksgiving, I feel like it was nothing compared to our dinner Friday night.  I’m not a big risk taker adventurous when it comes to food and gosh, was I stretched out of my comfort zone that night!  Some things I ate were way more delicious than I could have imagined, while others left my mouth on fire.  Ouch.  It was at that point that my adventuresomeness was over and I was begging for something as plain as a pineapple pizza for our next meal.  But really, if not for my brother and husband, I would never have tried half of the things that I’ve eaten over the last couple of years.  And to think of how much I’ve been missing out on! :-)

Anyway, here’s a glimpse of our Thanksgiving break…

My 7yr old cousin Karlyn (maybe with some help from her cohort Alejandro) made the name cards.

My brother made most of the spread.  Oh my heavens, it was delicious.

This table has been around since my mom was little.  And as my little cousins grow out of it, we’ll inherit it for our kids!

Ah, the young ones… always on their phones! ;-)

I still can’t believe Ben is in high school and Adam is in college!

The guy in the blue shirt is my granddad’s brother.  They look alike, but they SOUND more alike than anything.  And we all miss my granddaddy like crazy.

Grandma!  Love her!  And the cake on the right was my dad’s mom’s chocolate sheet cake… aka: a piece of heaven.

This is my cousin Jessica.  Don’t let her fool you with that wheelchair… she’s as mobile as anyone and is a mess!

Mom looking at our wedding pictures via PASS on the iPad.  They (still) aren’t all edited, but I got them on there in time to take with us to show them off!

And this is all of us… the Long side of my family!

The cousins (despite my height, I’m the oldest!).

My mom and her siblings take this picture almost everytime they’re together.  Mom is the oldest and her sister, Sally, is the youngest.
My uncles are in order of age from right to left, Jimmy, Michael and David.  And then this is Sally with her husband José.

This is my aunt Rhonda, and my aunt Sandy with their hubbys!

I wish I’d gotten a picture of them side by side so you could see how much my brother and David look alike.

Then Friday we went to DC…

These puzzles belong to my mom’s grandma and I’ve been putting them together every Christmas since I can remember.

The Harry Potter poster behind the tree?  Why, that’s mom’s that she found in France :-)

We brought a stitching project for mom because I knew it wouldn’t be a big deal for her to pull out her sewing machine.

What I didn’t realize is JUST how old this thing is!

Those dates on the left are from the 1800s.  1800s!!

Ben’s puzzle!

And then some fun gifts!

The Redskins fan and my husband the chef (they’re mini waffle and pancake pans!).

A gift for “sister dear” from brother dear.

The box I’m holding as been around at LEAST since I was in high school… but it’s probably older than that.

I love her.

And I love this guy.

And I love this picture.  It’s on its way to get printed as soon as I post this blog.

And NOW, it’s officially Christmas!!  Happy Thursday, everyone!