Postpone Your Christmas Mind for One More Thanksgiving Post

Well hello!

It's been a minute... or ten since I've written to you.  Let's remedy that, yeah?

Hang in there- it's going to be a doozy of a letter, with lots of grainy photos by me (because when you hang out with the Flinkman family, it's generally at night and the flash is obnoxious) and some others stolen from family, unceremoniously dropped at the end.

Now that I've had a few days to catch up on sleep, I'd love to give you a play by play of Thanksgiving.  Ok, maybe not a complete play by play, but all the good stuff.  Which, coincidentally, was most of it.

This Thanksgiving was the first in twenty-seven years that I have not seen my own family at all.  And while I missed seeing their darling faces, it was for the best reason.

The entire Flinkman family has not been together since our wedding.  That was over two years ago.  We have not seen Justin, Carter, or Tyler in over a year and a half.  We haven't seen Joel since last Christmas.  Carter and Tyler hadn't even met Lily yet (and my goodness- how those boys have grown!).  Everyone was meeting Norah for the first time.

But really, my statement about the entire Flinkman family not being together since our wedding is false (even ignoring the fact that two of them weren't born yet).  In reality, the Flinkman family has never been together in one place before because we had an extra special family member join us this year.  The Flinkman siblings' half-sister, Heather and the family got back in contact again about two months ago for the first time since Jered was a baby, (I think that's accurate) and she flew from Philadelphia to join us.

You guys.  It was amazing!  She is amazing.  She fits right in and loved us all like she's known us forever.  On Thanksgiving she said she was thankful that everyone accepted her as family right away, but in reality I think we should be thanking her for accepting the whole rowdy bunch.  That's a lot to take in! 

It was so sweet- she drank coffee like a fiend the entire time because she did not want to miss a thing.  She also brought the neatest gift for everyone: a flash drive filled up with old family photos for each family.  They ranged from when she was little to back before Herb was born.  It is awesome.

Heather- I am so, so, so glad you are part of our lives.  You are truly special to us.  (And not just because you help even out the girls to guys ratio. ;)  )  Love you!

Ok, so back to Thanksgiving.  Bob and Cheryl graciously offered to host the Thanksgiving meal for everyone.  I feel frustrated because I love words, but I honestly don't think I can capture the feeling of overwhelming love and family that we experienced with any words. 

When we took time to go around the room saying what we were thankful for, the rules were to try to stay away from the cliché- "friends and family," but it was impossible.  I think, for me anyway, the love in the room felt tangible.  To my family- I love you, and nothing will ever replace my time with you, but I have to admit that Jessica and I looked at each other and decided that this was the best Thanksgiving so far. 

Now that I think about it, that's really all you need to know about the weekend to know how it went.  The rest is just fluff.  So now, enjoy some photos.

  

 

 

 

 

Stolen from Joel:

 

  

 

 

 

Stolen from Kelly:
 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So. Like I said, it was an amazing Thanksgiving, and I would be remiss if I didn't share what we are thankful for this year:

 

In the words of my husband, "[We are] thankful for our unborn, baby child."

 

...

.....

.......

 

 

 

 

Yep.  So this is happening.  That bump is only half-too many snacks.  The other half is a lemon-sized baby.

 

Jered's not big into public baby announcements, but he's ok with friends and family, and if you're reading this than obviously we're friends and/or family, so I had to tell you!

 

I was going to fill you in on all the fun we had telling our family the news, but I think I will save that for another letter since this one is already chock-full of goodness, and I don't want to explode with happy thoughts.  Or do I?

 

Alas- I will hold off until later.  I'm excited to share with you the little moments I want to remember forever about pregnancy and all the reactions we've seen from people.

 

Now- join me in jumping the rest of the way into Christmastime!

 

Aimee