thanksgiving eve

while we were super happy that the weather kept madelyn home from school for the day, we were pretty bummed that uncle derek and his girlfriend, ashley, were delayed.  we pretty much had to leave for dinner the moment they arrived - like they didn't even get to take their coats off!

we went to a local casual restaurant for an early dinner before church thinking that it would be our best bet for getting a party of 10 in and out without too much waiting - especially the night before thanksgiving.  maddux fell asleep and had a really, really rough time waking up at the restaurant.

camera play helped to cheer him up a little.

we weren't quite sure what the "thanksgiving eve service" was going to entail.  i don't think that it was as much a "family service" as it was "there is no childcare" - it was a little chaotic in our row!  i think the kids would have done better if derek and ashley's flight had not been delayed and they had been able to have some time visiting before getting to church.  oh well.  it was a nice service from what i was able to hear when not attending to the kids.

they gave everyone leaves to write what they were thankful for on and hang on 'trees' when we left.  i think that the kids really liked this part.  the director of our kids' ministry took this picture of mason with his leaves and agreed to send it to me.  he looks way more angelic than he was behaving!  he chose and wrote "jesus" for why he was most thankful.

matt and i thought that this would be a great chance to get a group shot too since we would have someone to hold the camera for us.  not too bad considering how fidgety the kid were!