The whirlwind that was Thanksgiving 2006...

David and I, Thanksgiving 2006, and baby Seth at 31 weeks.

Mom and Dad with cousin Ian. He's explaining something to her, and Dad is fiddling with the oldies channel on Aunt Judy's cable. He loved listening to his old favorites. =)

Cousin Kim and Aunt Judy cleaning up in her home. We stayed at her new townhouse, and she hosted this year. I love her townhouse; it's cozy and has a nice layout.

A slightly out of focus picture of David and cousin Keith cleaning up after Thanksgiving dinner. We've got some tall men in the family, can you tell?

The bridal party. There's Tim and his lovely bride, Lauren. Isn't she beautiful? We're so happy for them.

David, Tim's younger sister, Betsy, and another groomsman, Rob. Isn't David handsome in a tux?

We're still catching our breath around here from Thanksgiving! We've never been quite so busy at a holiday. It was completely nutty. We went to BWI to pick up David's mom and dad on Thanksgiving morning, and we drove from there straight to Richmond to have Thanksgiving dinner with Keith, Kim, Ian, and Aunt Judy. David's Aunt Judy (Dad's sister), is a fixture at all family events, and whenever we can get together with David's first cousin and his family, we definitely do. They came from Harrisonburg for the holiday. So we fought traffic to Richmond and got there in time for naps and then a big dinner. Ukrops and Aunt Judy know how to cook! I'm glad she got some help feeding all of us. Keith only brought 4 pumpkin pies, and they were great. I have to get his recipe. Plenty of cards were played, as is true at any of David's family gatherings. On Friday, David and I headed out to Newport News after lunch to pick up his tux for Tim Mattson's wedding. Diana, Bill, and Judy followed later to check into their condo that they'd gotten for the weekend in Williamsburg. We all met up again at the rehearsal dinner that night, and then it was late to bed for everybody, especially David. We forgot to tell him which bedroom I was in, so when he came in at 2:00 a.m. from the bachelor party, I heard the door open, and a tentative, "Honey?" He got it right the first time. The next day, we had to be at the church around lunchtime, and then it was straight from wedding to reception. Diana and Bill left before we did, since David needed to stay and attend to essential groomsman duties like decorating the car. It had "Need instructions...Virgins on board" on one side. Not sure who's idea that was. The next morning, Aunt Judy was scheduled to speak on missions at a church in Richmond, and Bill and Diana went with her back to Richmond early. David and I went to church at his old church in Newport News. I was able to see the place where he went to youth group in high school, and he took me by their old house and school in Poquoson. Then we fought traffic back to DC. It was a long day, and we got back pretty late in the evening. We did enjoy the time in the car talking, though. Bill, Diana, and Judy went from Richmond to our apartment, and they got here a little before we did. The next morning, the crew went to oral arguments at the Supreme Court, and I stayed home and packed them a lunch for when they came back. Bill and Diana ate in the car on the way back to the airport. Whew! With all the wedding stuff, we didn't get a lot of time with relatives this year. It wasn't a traditional Thanksgiving, that's for sure. But it was good in it's own way. We wouldn't have missed being in Tim's wedding for the world. We are so excited about his marriage to Lauren because we know that they will build a strong family based on Christ, and that's thrilling to imagine. It was a joy to celebrate with them. And this year, God probably knew that I didn't need a normal Thanksgiving. It was harder on me to do the traditional Thanksgiving things than I'd expected it to be. I struggled some with fear because I lost our little one at this time last year. Being away from a family home setting and the normal hanging out was probably better for me. It was a nice distraction to be at the wedding and answering questions from friends about the baby. It made this pregnancy seem more real and safe. Overall, it was nuts, but it was a great Thanksgiving. I won't soon forget it. We have been blessed.