Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving this year was again spent with the Loucks' clan, minus Dan's immediate family. Even though 9 Loucks members were missing, there were still 30 of us at Grandma & Grandpa's house.

After a huge meal, we all did our best to work off the calories we'd just consumed...

by sitting around and watching the kids play!

With 4 members of the family up visiting from Florida, we had the annual white elephant gift exchange early, but we'll all bring gifts again on Christmas day too. Several years ago, the Loucks' started this tradition and spelled through Loucks, with everyone bringing gifts that started with L on the first year, O on the second year, and so on. Now we are spelling through Richard, Dan's Grandpa's name, and everyone had to bring gifts that started with the letter A (although a few took a little imagination to be considered true "A" gifts). Aiden and Seth helped everyone out by picking presents up from under the tree and bringing them to whomever was supposed to be opening one at that time. When Julius (cousin Leanna's boyfriend) opened some Andes candies, Aiden and Seth were right there to smell the chocolate through the bag...

and let Uncle Larry get a sniff as well.

Grandma opened some action figures and Airhead lollipops, which she traded with someone else on the second round, and we ended up with after a few more exchanges.

Grandpa Loucks, who can only eat gluten-free food products, opened a huge container of animal crackers and was more than happy when Dan and I snagged them from him (as were Aiden and Seth since they love animal crackers).

One of my favorite pictures that day was of Dan's Uncle Dick and Seth... doesn't it look like they're having a man-to-man talk?

In the evening, the four of us had another Thanksgiving meal with Dan's Aunt Wanda and cousin Kari... but we regrettably forgot to take any pictures. Overall, we had a very nice Thanksgiving and are really looking forward to the rest of Dan's family all being together for Christmas!