A Thankful Thanksgiving

My brother Patrick's accident gave us more to be thankful for this year than in years past. His back surgery to repair his L1 went well and he's now home recovering. We're hopeful that he'll be able to move around more normally in about 6 weeks. He seems to be keeping his spirits up even though he's dealing with some really severe pain. He catches you off guard with a quick joke or some unexpected funny comment. That's really what I love about him...constant comedian!

We all visited him in the hospital on Thanksgiving day not expecting to do a big dinner. But when my parents got home they decided, "What the heck." Our turkey was still frozen so they headed over to Fred Meyer and picked up a fresh turkey, popped it in the oven and we we're feasting on it by 6:00pm, plus all the fixins'! It wasn't the same without Patrick but he was in our thoughts and our conversations. We were lucky to bring him home the following day.

I made him smile for this picture...told him he'd appreciate the pic someday!

This is Austin's 2nd Thanksgiving feast. A bit more choices this go around. He loves to put olives on his fingers like every kid I'm sure. Oh wait, the bro-in-law, Erik, hates olives so perhaps he bypassed this trick as a kid!

Jakob and Austin had fun on the kiddie couches after dinner. Wish I could have lounged around but dishes had to be done. I swear, that's the only bummer part of Thanksgiving.

This is Austin's version of a hug! He's loves babies, especially Aaron!