Big Time Fun over Thanksgiving

We spent our long Thanksgiving weekend at J's parents home enjoying lots of competition and lots of laughter. I do believe it would fall into the hall of fame weekend with family.

On Thanksgiving day we held the first family Pinewood Derby Race. We had lots of fun *creating* our cars & to say that my family wasn't stressed trying to finish 5 cars on time would be a lie. I believe some of the glitter and bling on my diva car was not quite dry at race time.

Jadeybug's car took first place for speed and Auntie Ann's wiener dog car took first place for most creative. There was an official weigh in and naturally there were pinewood derby medals for all and trophies for the 1st and 2nd place winners. We do things big=0) After our big turkey dinner we followed through with the annual Thanksgiving day golf game.

There was another cornhole tournament where the family trophy made it's way back to our *cough cough* mantel. It seems that the final round always comes down to J & his older brother....so for now, we will showcase the creative family trophy for the next year...or until nobody in our family wins it. Another fun tradition is the Christmas walk on B0ca Grande. I just love all the little island shops and the beverages that they supply for us bringing the Christmas spirit into their store. Santa comes through the island on a fire truck where he is handed small liquor bottles to help pass his time as Santa. My kind of Santa.

This is the only Santa that I've ever managed to get my kids to. Though G&C have outgrown sitting on Santa's lap, I did want them to be in the photo, but they ran off when it was our turn. Eme did a whole lot of starring and inspecting while W was giving his list of wants to Santa. She however, wanted NOTHING to do with the jolly drunk fella;0)

When W was told that Santa had to go back to the North P0le, he informed us that Santa lives on B0ca, NOT the North P0le! Santa lives in Paradise.

We also managed to squeeze in family photos of the entire clan and even did an 'outlaw' shot for good measure with us in black. We had a smashing good time and was so glad that the Oh~I~YER clan made it to Florida for turkey~!

This was Eme Grace's first Thanksgiving and she alone has given us much to be thankful for. We are blessed beyond measure and thankful for so much in our lives. My heart is with those parents still waiting for their dreams to come true. I know the yearning, the desire, the hope and the pain of waiting & my heart is still with all those waiting.

Family is a little world created by love.
the 'outlaw' photo: just for fun=0)

Grams & Gramps put the GRAND in Grandparents!

Grams & Gramps

Uncle T & Auntie Ann with Eme Grace.

The best aunt & uncle ever.

CORNHOLE!

my beautiful girl...

Oh how I love B0ca...& oh how I love having my girl home this year to enjoy it all.

Studying Santa very carefully...

watching football with Gramps & Daddy

Digging in Grams's treasure chest before going to bed.

Emerson was loving that the wiener dogs were golfing with us in their little stroller and she kept sticking her hand in to get kisses and then laughing herself silly. Super cute moment.

Ready, set, run!

Making homemade pretzels...very tasty!

What a super fun weekend we had blessed with family, fun & lots of memories to grow on.