The Annual Family Picture

My family's annual picture (which hasn't been annual for a couple of years!) and Thanksgiving prompted another visit back to East Tennessee. We had spent last Thanksgiving in Clarksville, so this year was the other side's turn. We had dinner over at Tom and Pattie's, where Tom made the best turkey I've ever had. I'm normally a sides girl, but I think I ate more turkey than Chris this year. Dinner was later than normal, and Mason's bedtime is 7:30, so we had to leave before the party was over. Before we left, all the sisters made plans to meet up pre-dawn the next morning for some Black Friday shopping.

At 4:45 on the dot, Mary pulled in at Mom's to pick me up, and we made it to the mall at 5, way after the first rush. Sisters 1 and 3 wimped out, so it was just Mar and me, and we were back home by 9. I'm dreading the days to come when Mason will want the toy-of-the-year and Chris and I will have to camp out on Thanksgiving afternoon. Mary and I still laugh about the year Tyra wanted the Barbie Beetle, and I had to hurdle stacks of toys in KB to snag one of the three they had in stock. I'm not that fast anymore and Chris' knees are shot from two decades of soccer, so Mason may be out of luck.

The next morning the whole family met up at the Thompson-Brown house for our family picture, and it was as much a zoo as you imagine it would be, trying to corral 23 people. As usual, Dad ended up Photoshop-ing the picture to get one good shot where all eyes were open and no kids were screaming. Toward the end of the shoot, Mom and Dad were ensconced on the steps with all their grandkids, and as Chris passed Mason to Mom, I noticed tell-tale wet spots on his pants. Yep, he pooped out his diaper, so he is conspicuously absent from the grandkids photo. Maybe Dad can Photoshop him back in. We got some super-cute shots of him in his toboggan, though.

Later that night we were able to visit Jason and Christy, even though we missed out on seeing Sydney because she was napping. Christy looks way cuter pregnant than I ever felt. Can't wait to see little Rece! From their house we headed over to Brad and Amy's and had dinner with them. Braden was so sweet and shared his toys (even his prized Thomas train) with Mason...pretty impressive for someone his age! We hadn't seen any of our Knoxville friends in ages, so it was great to catch up.

If we end up moving back to East Tennessee, it'll be nice to have couples to hang with who have kids. We'll miss the Shasserres and Collinses so much, but we realize that we're kind of a drag on them now that we have Mason. Of course, they could just hurry up and have kids, and then we wouldn't have to worry about it!