Thanksgiving 2018

Our Thanksgiving began with a puddle jumping walk with Dodger. The boys were pretty wet and muddy by the time we were done, but they had a blast in the process. We did our usual double celebration by starting at Aunt Penny and Uncle Mark's and then ending up at Pepe and Nonna's.
To be honest, we were in a bit of a daze this Thanksgiving. The day before, Jon's cousin had passed away and we were all reeling from the shock. Bryan was only a few years older than us and Jon and C grew up close to all of their cousins. Watching Auntie P by his side in and out of the hospital all summer long and then having to say goodbye to him was, and still is, absolutely heartbreaking. Originally Pepe's side of family wasn't planning on getting together this Thanksgiving but without anyone really talking about it his two other sisters, all of their kids, and all of their grandkids all showed up after dinner. We played our usual game of trivial pursuit (even though I have no pictures to prove it) and there was just an unspoken understanding that we all wanted to be together. It is hard to be thankful when there are things you are horribly sad about but we did our best to remind the boys of how much we have to be thankful for and how lucky we are to have each other.