"The Best Grace Ever"

Thanksgiving 2010 is in the bag and it was (mostly) very good. It didn't start all that well, with a phone call around 9:30 from our neighbor complaining about Lizzie barking (in truth, I was up to my elbows in turkey stuffing and couldn't even hear her). He said he was going to be in his yard frying turkey all day and that there were people in his house asleep and could I please do something. "Something" was the worst thing I could do--we had to lock the dogs in the house all day while we were gone. There was no other choice to make short of taking all seven dogs to my mother's.

Our friend Jessica was coming to feed the dogs and I contacted her to be sure she let them out when she came, but they would still be locked in with nowhere to pee and poop but the living room.

After that anything would be a step up. And it was. We packed the puppies in the car and set off for my mother's

They were so good all day. Slept, ate, played, slept again.

I was just feeding them when Tom, Laurel and Bri arrived. Bri's eyes got so big when she saw the puppies.

When the puppies had been fed and cuddled and put back to bed, we took some posed photos, especially a 4-generation photo.

Then Bri and I worked on a project of making turkeys for the dinner table.

When dinner was ready, Tom carved the turkey...

...and we sat down to dinner.

We held hands and Bri said grace. She thanked God for Ga-Ga (my mother), for grandma, for grandpa, for Daddy and for Mommy. It was a very sweet 2-year old grace and we decided it was "the best grace ever."

After dinner, Bri helped me feed the puppies.

By the end of the evening, everybody was feeling sleepy.

So Laurel took Bri off to bed and I packed up the puppies. We had originally planned to spend the night and have breakfast with Ned in the morning, but his plans changed and so we decided to come home ... and let the grateful dogs out into the yard again!

It was a real sweet Thanksgiving and everybody had a nice time.