ThatCarolJones|| AllThatToSay: I Am Thankful for Pie

Thanksgiving has come and gone. Our first Thanksgiving with the three new Jones girls. Well, technically, it is not the first one with our daughters, just our first one with them "officially" as our daughters. It's our third Thanksgiving with them in our home.

And it was our first Thanksgiving with a daughter-in-law. She is a welcome addition in many ways, but ESPECIALLY if she keeps making those ridiculously good buttermilk pies that she made!

We also had a little foster baby with us, "Baby D" as we call her, as well as my Dad and Step mom.

And then Jacob came home from college, something I always look forward to and am incredibly grateful for when it happens.

Man. Full House to say the least!

I love that my family gets together at Thanksgiving. Well, technically I always love that. No matter the occasion.

But for the most part, I don't love Thanksgiving. I spend two days cooking a meal that takes 15 minutes to eat and two hours to clean up from. Mike spends most of the day outside cooking turkeys (he cooked THREE turkeys this year . . . I have no idea why!)

The boys typically spend the time napping.

The girls spend their day being toddlers, requiring interventions on an ongoing basis.

And me? I'm in the kitchen cooking, and constantly answering the most asked question on Thanksgiving Day, "What time do we eat?" (At least I had help in the kitchen this year!)

Even though I don't enjoy Thanksgiving, "the holiday," I do enjoy my family, in all their messiness, all their craziness, all their moodiness, and all their zaniness.

I enjoyed having my parents here and watching them interact with their granddaughters. I want Nikki and Shannay to have sweet memories of holidays with their grandparents. And I enjoyed having Jacob home, even though he left early. And I enjoyed playing dominoes with Zack and Christina and my dad and Mike, even though I lost, again. And I enjoyed sharing our home with a baby who didn't have one.

And I enjoyed the pie . . . man did I enjoy the pie.

All that to say, I am glad that we are moving into the Christmas season, the season of hope and joy. I am "thankful" that Thanksgiving is over. And I'm thankful for my family. (And I'm thankful for pie!)

(Here are some favorites from the day)