The Lee Family: Thanksgiving

One of the things I love most about living in Ohio is that I can drive to see my parents. I've gotten to see them so much more since we've lived here. We went down again this year for Thanksgiving. Growing up we'd always have two Thanksgiving dinners, one at Nana's & Papa's house and one and Grandmama's and Grandaddy's. For about the past 5 years they've started having Thanksgiving out at Uncle Stanley's farm. It is so great! The kids love it and so do I. Growing up in suburbia, my kids don't get out in the woods very often. The farm is great with tons of wide open spaces and woods to play in. This year Amanda and Christian came home too. We eat in the barn which is so fun. I caught most everyone in mid-bite!

The kids table.

My plate. My favorites are my dad's smoked turkey (it is the best smoked turkey ever!), Grandmama's creamed corn (I don't get creamed corn very often, the canned and frozen stuff you can get doesn't even compare), the cornbread & sausage stuffing I made (it turned out really good - at least Scott and I thought so), Grandmama's dressing, cranberry orange relish (so yummy). Amanda also made a yummy salad that I'm planning on recreating. Not pictured but still some of my favs are Grandmama's chocolate layer cake (the thinnest layers of butter cake with chocolate fudgey icing) and cream cake.

Uncle Stanley is the best host. He even made a hay ride for the kids this year.

Courtney is getting so big. She is the sweetest girl. She's always having to take care/entertain all the younger kids and she never complains.

Aunt Panders and Uncle Fanksten. My kids are lucky they have aunts and uncles without kids. I think sometimes once you have your own kids, you are so busy taking care of them that you don't spend as much time talking and playing with your niece and nephews. Amanda and Christian ( & Aunt Donna who wasn't here) are so good at playing and hanging out with our kids. We all think Addie looks and acts like Aunt Amanda (although I can't imagine that Amanda was as crazy as Addie when she was young).

Dad brings down the golf cart which the kids LOVE, LOVE, LOVE driving around in. Parker even got to drive this year.

It's sad but everytime I see Nana I think it could be my last time. She is definitely not herself anymore. I'm so glad that I and my kids got to see her at Thanksgiving.

We also get to ride 4 wheelers when we are there. These were ours growing up. I LOVED riding the 4 wheelers through the woods behind the house. The only bad part was how Dad made us clean them until they looked like new after every riding (I'm sure he actually did most of the cleaning). My kids don't get to do things like this so it's so fun to see them loving it.

It was so great to see Grandmama too. She is the sweetest most positive person. I know her health isn't as great as it used to be but she always talks about how thankful she is for what she's got. I love her.

The outside display Uncle Stanley set up for the kids. Addie loved it.

Addie and Scott trying to make me laugh.

Part of the olympics Aunt Amanda set-up. I don't think she realized how competitive my kids are, especially Owen. She wasn't prepared for the freakout he had when he didn't win.

One of my kids favorite parts of going to GA is getting to hang out with the cousins. Corbitt and Loretta have moved to AL but the kids came over for Thanksgiving (Mikey was just born so Corbitt & Loretta stayed home). Loretta did end up coming over for a few nights so we got to see baby Mikey. He is adorable and looks just like Corbe, lots of dark hair.