#1,806 Thanksgiving.

We woke up this morning to the smell of dressing in the crock pot and Ben’s mama was out in the yard clipping greenery to make a centerpiece for the dinner table. Harper and I watched her make magic with a few evergreen branches and some dried Japanese magnolia blooms:

And soon that 13 foot dining table didn’t seem so big (you like the way I’m talking about just ONE MORE TIME?) once it was covered in baked sweet potatoes, turnip greens, corn on the cob, green beans, scalloped potatoes, (non-oil infrared!) fried turkey, dressing, giblet gravy, cranberry sauce, yeast rolls, and fudge pie.

And there was donkey petting with Harper.

And cooing with Preston.

There were old family photos to be hung on the wall like this jewel (can you pick out Ben?)

And soon it was time to head back to Laurel to have Thanksgiving supper with my side of the family before we even had time to digest lunch.

We walked into the living room to find daddy holding Walker, telling him about mama’s mantle garland and the Santas that rest there.

We ate every delicious thing again—the turkey, the dressing, the squash casserole, homemade yeast rolls, green bean casserole, turnip greens, and mama’s famous caramel pear cake.We took many photos of Walker because he’s so sweet and he’s changing so fast, I feel like we have to document every wave, every grin, every hug.

It was a very low-key Thanksgiving at mama’s, with only our little family of 7.

Seven.

Because one year ago—I finally got to tell you about him and what a miracle it was that he was here, at long last.

2014, I know we’ve got one month left… But you were one of the big ones. I hated you there at first (The sickness! The first surgery! The slow January! The second surgery! The adoption finalization hang ups! Losing Beau!), but now… You turned out to be one of the best years I’ve met. I’ll really, truly, hate to see you go.

I’m going to have some long prayers of thankfulness tonight. LONG ones.