Happy Thanksgiving!!

As far as I'm concerned,  the best part of any holiday is the family gathering.  I can't tell you how much I love to watch our kids and their cousins reunite after a few months apart.  They change so crazy fast, don't they?  And start to look more and more like their parents, too.  Yikes ... how can this possibly be happening already!?

We spent at a lot of time at my Mom and Dad's place this weekend.  Last night was the official Thanksgiving feast - full turkey dinner with all the tried and true favourites!  Sweet potato casserole - mmmmm.... love that pecan topping; broccoli salad made by yours truly; pumpkin and chocolate pies.  Right before we went over last night, I was busy at home trying something new from the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog - oh the glorious looking food on there - something called  the Apple Perishky.  It looks like a little apple pie in a pocket (check the link) and without blowing my own horn, let me just say they are uber yummy.  I brought a few to Mom's as an experiment.  Delish!

While we were all together (minus brother Cam and sis-in-law Ashleigh unfortunately), Dad took some pics.  Here are the 9 cousins in all their adolescent and tweeny glory:

That's Ben leaning over making a typical 9-year old goofy face.  Everyone else is actually starting to care how they look in a picture, but he's not quite there yet.  I'm so glad about that.  Heehee.

We strategically repositioned the kids so Oma's beautiful Thanksgiving display could make it onto the picture.  She insisted. (Just kidding, no she didn't.  But she did push a little for it.)  Notice how perfectly Sam's orange pants coordinate with the autumn theme.  He's good.

Seeing as we survived the large group cousin shots, John and I decided to tempt fate and try for a couple Hollingsworth-only pictures.  We are pathetically overdue in the family portrait department, so we talked Dad into snapping a few of just us.

Not bad for a last minute photo session, eh?  Good job, Father Konrad!
The last time I saw my friend Deb, I was complaining about the double chin I always develop in pictures.  She taught me the "chin down and out" trick and I have to say, I think it works!!  You feel really dumb while you're doing it, but who cares if it means your jowls are presentable on the finished product?

Duncan sitting amongst Oma and Opa's foliage.  Luckily there was a rock in the perfect spot for his bum.

This girl rarely takes a bad picture.  Emma doesn't need the chin-out-and-down rule.  Isn't she gorgeous?

And last but not least ... Ben climbed a rather delicate looking tree in Opa's flowerbed (eek!) for his picture.  He's sporting some serious Fidgets bling by the way.  The dog tags and cap go with him everywhere these days.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  May your turkey be scrumptious and your pumpkin pie velvety smooth.  And may we all thank God for the blessings He has so generously heaped upon us in this rich and beautiful country of ours.