This year was Dan and I's year to spend Thanksgiving with his family.....but I guess you could say I am the one that skipped out. My brother, who lives in San Diego and comes home maybe twice a year, and his girlfriend were coming to spend Thanksgiving with OUR family....in FULTON! So Dan and I spent the holiday weekend with our respective families, 5 hours away from each other in opposite ends of the state. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking about my family's Thanksgiving 2011.
Mom loves her some Christmas decorations! And each year it's fun to see what new things she has out or how everything is arranged. This year she had everything out before Thanksgiving, a first for her! It sure made it feel more like the holidays. And the fireplace always makes it feel more cozy, especially on the mornings where we just sat around talking and telling stories!
As long as us "younger ones" have been alive, our family has spent Thanksgiving Day at an old school house in Water Valley, Ky. Water Valley is a small, small town about 5 miles from Fulton. This school has been around since the 40's and our extended family has been coming here once a year on Thanksgiving for 50 years. In fact, this year was the 50th year! My grandma Cash, my mother's mother, and her brothers and sisters and their families have been coming here every year for 50 years! We usually have about 120 people!
The front of the school house. It is now a community center that people can rent out for special occassions, such as annual Thanksgiving get-togethers!
There are sitll pictures on the wall of all the different 8th grade classes that graduated from this school!
Since this year was the 50th year, we had t-shirts made and had a group picture! My grandmother's maiden name was Hutchins, so our t-shirts say "Hutchins: a link to our past and a bridge to our future."
Do you really want to be at the end of THAT food line??
Micah, myself, and Mallory before eating lunch.
Our cousin Brad's daughter, Ava. I just had to include this pic!
Two of my uncles, Barry and Waymon. These are two of Dan's faves in my family. :-)
You know it's "big time" when the local news station comes to cover your family's Thanksgiving dinner! WPSD Local 6 came to interview the remaining 3 siblings of my Grandma Cash. There were originally 9 of them!
Thanksgiving night we did what all other families do: watch football. Because Allison went to the "real UT" as she calls it (University of Texas), we watched the Texas/Texas Tech game. She had to represent her Longhorns!
Friday night we got together at my uncle Mike's shop and ate chili, roasted marshmallows, played cornhole, and watched football. Lauren likes her mallows extra crispy!
I pride myself on being able to make the perfect S'more.
Unfortunately this is the only picture I have from Saturday when we all watched the UK/UT game together. This is a very calm picture of Morgan and Duke, but you better believe that it was an exciting afternoon in our house. Becuase Fulton is right on the Kentucky/Tennessee border, about half of our extended family members are UK fans and the other half are UT fans. It was fun being able to be UK fans for once!
Saturday night some of the "cousins" went out to eat in Union City, Tn. Below is the conversation that happened before this picture was taken:
Morgan: Micah, take a picture of me, Maegan and Mallory.
Micah: Don't you want me to be in the picture too?
Morgan: No.
Haha. Morgan keeps us laughing all the time.
But somehow Micah found her way in the picture! Think we love scarves??
And Matthew and Allison had to join the group! Wow, time goes by fast. Morgan is 16 and not the "little one" anymore!
It was a great holiday weekend with family!
