Family fun

My dad's the oldest of six kids, and his mom always has us get together on Thanksgiving Day for a ginormous feast of turkey and ham and all kinds of yummy stuff like that. And except for my mom and dad and my sister and her husband, the entire rest of the family made it to the celebration this year. Isaac had a great time playing with my cousin Kasie's son Christian and my cousin Steph's son Courtland.


Here's the whole crew (minus Steph's husband and my husband, who were taking the photos):

I don't know what possessed me to allow the photos to be taken out in the middle of the broadest, brilliantest sunshiny day... and of course, I didn't have the camera set correctly, so all the photos were totally blown. I'm totally bummed about this.

But it was fun to get together with everyone. This year, lots of us have been able to keep up with each other via Facebook, which has been a real blessing. Not all of us see one another that much during the year, but it always amazes me how much we look alike and our personalities are so similar despite the distances. I can see re-peats in each new generation and it cracks me up.


The family matriarch, Doris. The other grandkids and great-grands call her Grandma, of course, but when I was born, she was still really young and just couldn't bear the thought of being anyone's grandma, so I grew up calling her Doris. Which was fine with me; I didn't know any different and didn't care overmuch. This woman can cook like nobody's business, I am not gonna lie.


And this is my uncle Carroll; he's my dad's next youngest brother. The two of them used to be holy terrors for the entire neighborhood, from what I've heard. Carroll recently donated his stem cells to my dad. He also sends me funny jokes and stories via e-mail, most of which I wouldn't be able to publish here, but which give me a lot of great laughs nonetheless.



My aunty Susan ("Sookie" to most of us), the baby of the family, with her husband. Bet y'all didn't know that Sookie Stackhouse (of Charlaine Harris' novels and HBO's True Blood TV series) isn't the only Sookie out there... I got one too!!

My uncle Donnie, with Miss Alice. Donnie's always been a character...

My aunty Lea, who plays the piano beautifully, has the prettiest eyes you ever saw, and the kindest heart of anyone you ever met, and my uncle Tommy, who's a registered nurse and loves to play golf.

I got me some cool relatives.