Thankful

Thanksgiving was well over a week ago, so I'm a little behind, but I figure it's always a good time to be thankful for the many blessings in our lives -- no matter what day it is :). We returned home the Sunday after Thanksgiving and enjoyed dinner with my parents before really settling back in. Our first week back was busy, complete with a brief and mild illness for Millie, stuffy noses for all the girls and travel to CT for Scott. So, here we are, back into our routines and ready to report :).

We traveled to Michigan for Thanksgiving for the first time in several years. It was a long drive to make with two small children, but it was well worth it. It also gave us the perfect excuse to stop in Chicago and visit some good friends that we had not seen for a long time. Once in Unionville, the girls got to spend time with Grandma and Papa Reithel as well as their cousins, aunts, uncles, great-aunts and uncles, second cousins, first cousins once removed ... There was no shortage of people to pay attention to and play with the girls. It was so nice to see everyone again and reconnect with the family as a whole. Millie loved playing with all of the old toys and reading all of the old books (some dating back to Grandma's childhood!).

Uncle Kevin hasn't lost his touch with babies :)

the beautiful quilt Aunt Janet made for Merrill -- she loves rolling around on it!

After Thanksgiving dinner we had a chance to celebrate Christmas with all of the Reithel's too since Scott's parents were headed to Arizona after we left and it's not likely that we'll make it back up to Michigan before the new year. Millie had fun helping to hand out presents. She's really going to enjoy Christmas this year!

Friday we headed to Frankenmuth with Scott's parents and Kevin and his family to have family portraits taken (our gift to Scott's parents this year). Unfortunately Scott's brother Kent wasn't able to make it, so the picture isn't quite complete. We definitely all missed seeing him this year. Turns out we're not a bad looking family :).

We are so thankful that we were able to spend time with the Reithel family this year and especially thankful that we got to see Kevin and his family. It has been a particularly rough year for them and we've been very sad that we haven't been around to help. We love them all very much and are praying that 2010 brings some good news for everyone's health and a lot more reasons to smile.