Thanksgiving creativity

Ben did his part to make our Thanksgiving day more festive.    I love his creativity.

This year we tried something new...we went and delivered meals to less fortunate folk.  The church we went to had a lot of volunteers, so we only got to deliver 3 meals, but I guess that's better than none.  I enjoyed taking the kids to visit with the individuals...and hopefully their eyes were opened a little bit. 

Friday we headed over to Mobile to visit the USS Alabama Battleship.  The boys really enjoyed touring the ship.  Here Sam is in one of the "berthing" areas.  I definitely would not want to call this "home" for very long.  It's amazing that so many men lived on these battleships for such long periods of time.

Sam and Elyse waiting for food at the galley.

Uh - oh, Ben is in the brig.

Ben and Sam exploring a submarine.

We go to Bellingrath Garden every year to see the lights.....we hit it a little early this year since we were in the area.  The day before we had 80 degree weather, and we were excited at the prospect of going to Bellingrath in warm weather.  Every year it either rains on us or is freezing cold.  Well, true to form, it turned suddenly cold and was raining!  I guess traditions encompass weather, too.

During our short trip, I kept asking myself "Where are you, Christmas?"  The Christmas spirit was definitely not in our family as we traveled together in the car, braved the freezing wind and rain, toured hours on a battleship, and spent time together in a hotel.  I'm not sure that our family does well together in close quarters, and it really puts a damper on things to constantly have to be dealing with attitudes, fighting, and negative comments amongst family members.  It really gets to me, and then I get upset, and as the saying goes "When mamma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."  I wish I could be more chipper and upbeat and have a magical way to turn those moments around.........but I don't.  Poor Keyan......he's left to deal with 5 moody individuals!  I hope to be able to answer the question "Where are you, Christmas?" soon.  I hope we can have a more loving atmosphere enter our home and everyone will try really hard to curb their tongue and look beyond their own wants.

Well finally, a few pictures to show what is growing in our garden.  It has been slow growing, but we have peas...

green tomatoes,

and broccoli.