Thanks and Giving

A sweet friend of mine also named her "Thanksgiving" post, Thanks and Giving, I thought it was so appropriate, I borrowed it! ;-)

 (hope you don't mind!) 

We waited until the last minute to make plans this year, we've been waiting to hear about a "start date" for my hubby.  My momma sent me this text. "No pressure, but cooking for 16 is much different than cooking for 26, so let us know as soon as you can." :-D. Made me smile! She meant, "No pressure, but you practically need your own bird, please RSVP!" ;-). 

Love my momma! 

I'm so glad we decided to go home.  There have been some health scares in and around our extended family, and we all needed to be gathered together.  We missed one of our sisters and her family. But we are so proud of the work they are doing in San Cristobal, love y'all!!! 

How cute is my nephew??

Just wanna eat his neck!!!  But it looks like his daddy is doing a pretty good job of that already. 

Our only given task, was to bring pickles and olives to snack on while my dad tortured us with the most delectable smells.  We stopped and picked up some black olives, I swear, they were laced with something!!!  I'm not usually a "raw olives right out of the can" kinda girl, but these were exceptional! 

Here's a little of the "giving". :-) 

We had a smoked turkey, and my dad did something I've been hearing about lately.  He cooked the turkey upside down for half the time, then flipped it and cooked it the rest of the way. 

Oh

My

Word! 

It was good!!!  

Thank you dad!!!!! 

My momma always sets the most beautiful tables! 

The boys were outside when we arrived spray painting those apples and pears! How clever!! 

Here's one of my sisters trying to decide where we were gonna squeeze another two dishes on the table!!  

Isn't she cute? 

Here she is again.  Cracks me up. 

My daddy LOVES to cook, almost as much as we LOVE for him to cook! :-) 

They re-did their Kitchen recently, and I just can't enough!!! Gorgeous!!!!

Two years ago our grandpa had a stroke. :-(   It has been a long uphill road for our sweet grandparents, but they are amazing!   Such an example of True Love!  

There they are on the left.  Grandma standing guard.  Always with a hand loving on him.  When I was little they let us in on a little secret, before each meal we prayed and held hands.  At the end they give each other, (and now us grandchildren) three squeezes before we let go. The squeezes are code for, I Love You!  And we love them so much! With grandpa being less mobile, and the cold season upon us, I wanted to make him something special. 

Our "Papi" loves hockey.  Any hockey in general, but especially Colorado Avalanche!  Sakic was the favorite.

When I came across this pattern on Pinterest I thought it was perfect! 

Lots of fun new stitches, but almost easy enough to work a few rows before consulting the pattern. :-)

 

With this home jersey in mind,

I came up with this! 

I love how it turned out!!!  

It is soft, and warm, but for a little extra added snugness I lined it with fleece and hand stitched the edges.  Then ran a single crochet around the edges in the maroon. 

To keep it from being too loosey-goosey I hand quilted the fleece catching just the underside of the afghan. 

This was really a labor of love. It took me a few months to complete, but I thought of my sweet grandparents with every stitch.  Thanking God for them, praying for strength and wisdom, and asking God to keep my own marriage, so that one day our grandchildren might look at us with the love and respect that we have for our "Mimi and Papi". 

We have so much to be grateful for!