Big Family Christmas Party

I am finally recovering from our family weekend when we hosted the Turner rellies for a Christmas get-together.  Lots of love and tons of fun, but I was pretty wiped out for a couple days afterward!

Our kids arrived on Friday afternoon, and we had a nice visit with the fairly small group.

Here is our Lily sitting on her grandfather's lap.

The next day we set up extra tables and chairs, moved the fire pit to the end of the driveway, and hosted an indoor/outdoor party on a cold but clear wintry day.

We had great help from Bryson, Dave, Emily, and Melissa.  Here are my girls enjoying a preview of the meatballs before the big gang arrived.

The kids were very happy that we brought the Gator home from the mountains in November.

My 13-year-old great-niece loved driving them all around the yard.

Although my dad has retired from being the official turkey carver, we had to take the ceremonial picture of him with the turkey.  Make that plural...Charlie cooked two nice ones in the smoker this year.

When it was time to eat, the chow line wrapped almost all the way around the kitchen and living room and out the door.

One of the most memorable moments was when Dad gave my niece, Adrienne, a portrait of her mother.  We lost Paula to cancer just a couple of months ago.  Dad finished this portrait recently, one of his first serious works of art since his debilitating bout of pneumonia last April.  Her sister Jessie got one, too.

To celebrate Dad's return to better health and the ability to make art again, all of his kids chipped in to get him a nice new wooden taboret for his painting supplies.  Somehow the one that he had been using for 55 years just did not look so good any more.

Then he surprised all of us with a beautifully matted and framed giclee copy of his portrait of our beautiful mother, Betty Lou Turner.  What a wonderful gift! 

When we have these family gatherings, I often think about how much my mother would have loved to be there, enjoying her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.  We also lost her to cancer at age 60, way way too soon.  Love you, Mom!