La Famille Kelly: Thanksgiving 2015

We are lucky to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving twice a year, with the first event taking place in October with our Canadian family and the second in November with the Americans. A less intrepid couple might have sat this year out on the travel front and celebrated both occasions at home with their many young offspring but not La Famille! Don't get me wrong, Matt and I had more than one instance of "What the hell were we thinking?!" looks as we ran through the airport, held crying babies on the plane and listened to whining in the back seat of the rental car, but in the end it was worth it to see our families and have the kids visit with their cousins.

The entire Mailloux crew descended on my parent's house in October for our first turkey day. That meant 6 grandchildren aged 5 and under in one house at one time, which, as you can imagine, was a literal zoo. The kids had an amazing time though and we really appreciated the opportunity to get them all together in one place; visits are few and far between when you live on opposite coasts.

Gus canoodling with Hayes

All 6 cousins...ages 5, 4, 3, 23 mos, 10 mos

Hayes and Hank, BFFs

For American Thanksgiving we took the crew down to Hilton Head, SC where the Kelly's had rented a beach house for the week. Both of Matt's sisters and their families were there, as well as his dad, Bill, who was celebrating his 80th birthday. The weather was beautiful and the beach was lovely but lord these kids are a lot work! I can say for sure that I have never been more thankful for our nanny than I was when we returned from this trip! And for an added bonus, a stomach bug worked its way through the inhabitants of the house while we were there, claiming a new victim or two every day. By the time Friday rolled around everyone agreed it was time to get out of dodge. But we did manage to catch up with our cousins, walk along the beautiful beach and enjoy a really delicious Thanksgiving dinner.

Auntie Alice with a sleeping June

Dylan

Matt showing the girls the ocean

A windswept Gus

Running on the beach

Dylan and June - why yes, those are red suede ballet shoes, naturellement!

The kids with their cousin Maggie

June and Uncle David

The boys with cousin Harrison

And since I never got the chance to say them out loud amid the madness of the actual Thanksgiving meal, here are the things for which I am most thankful:

My beautiful, intelligent, funny, silly, precocious, curious and delightful children. Every day is a roller coaster with you kids but not one goes by without me appreciating how blessed I am to have four amazing kiddos.
My handsome, supportive and patient husband who's on this ride with me. Matt, thank you for everything you do for our family - you provide more than we need and then some and still manage to be home every night for bedtime.
The health of my family and my extended family - may we always be as healthy as we are right now...
And almost as important, in no particular order:

Coffee.
Wine.
Amazon Prime.

And with that, I turn to the Christmas season. We spent last weekend setting up the tree and getting excited for the most wonderful time of the year! The next month will be busy with lots of school holiday events, the girls 1st birthday and a ski trip to Colorado. So much to look forward to...