Bizarro Thanksgiving

Because my mom's recent foot surgery requires that she be completely off her feet for 8 weeks, she was not able to do Thanksgiving like she normally does.  (When I say "normally,"  I mean doing EVERYTHING by herself, with maybe a little help from us on setting the table and cleaning up afterwards.)  Bummer, but no sweat...my very gracious sister-in-law, Ashley, volunteered to have it at her house!

BUT THEN...they day before Thanksgiving, late in the afternoon, Ashley got a call from the pediatrician saying test results had come back positive for whooping cough for one of her children.  OK...SWEAT!!  Whooping cough is extremely contagious and VERY dangerous for infants, so we had to make the tough call to stay away from their house and do Thanksgiving without them at mom's.  SO INCREDIBLY SAD!!

And that's how Bizarro Thanksgiving began...

Thanksgiving Day, instead of Mom making everyone breakfast in the kitchen, everyone started off the morning visiting her in her bed.  Wierd.

Brady brought home his new "friend," Valerie, that none of us had ever met before.

Hi Valerie, nice to meet you, could you dig out the Thanksgiving tablecloth and then set the table?  Thanks!

Dad, Nat, Brady and Valerie and I prepared the Thanksgiving feast with Mom directing from "her spot" in the living room.  (Although, I admit, I was MIA lots of the time taking care of Chandler...feeding her, putting her down for a nap, etc)  This is mom's "this is a really strange way to do Thanksgiving" face.

The guys took care of the kids.

And mom's wheelchair became part of the regular living room seating.

It was a chaotic "all hands on deck," total team effort to get it done.

And then we were all finally able to sit down and enjoy it while most of the food was at least still luke-warm. 

Despite all of the bizarro-ness of Thanksgiving, we were able to squeeze in some fun play-time.

Brooklyn in the bounce house.

Lawson and I dancing in the kitchen.

Chandler playing on her mat

Hudson playing on her mat

And there was lots of bonding...

This was Brady's first time to meet Baby Chandler

And then of course, it just isn't a real Thanksgiving without some great post-turkey naps!

Although we greatly missed Landry, Ashley and the Giblets, it turned out to be a pretty Happy Thanksgiving and I think this face sums it up best:

Hope yours was a happy one!