Much To Be Thankful For

With all the craziness that is world, I am blessed to have a wonderful family who constantly add life to the years.

We've started having Thanksgiving at my brother's house in Orlando every year. Number one it's an expensive holiday when you host it and number two he has a really nice house on a beautiful lake. He buys all the groceries, a plethora booze and my sister and I cook. Actually Cindy does more of the cooking and I tend to be more of the clean up person and funny sidekick. It works out really well...at least for Cindy and me!

All we have to do is show up and sling one meal together to put on his huge dining room table while drinking up all his booze. As Chic Fil A says "It's our pleasure!"

All three of us Leach kids have aged pretty well if you ask me. On the other hand (small pun) it's pretty sad when a brother's hands look better than his two sister's. I laughed after taking this picture of my hand and Cindy's side by side while we were cooking. I had a cut from work healing up and she's obviously losing a thumb nail soon...not to mention the road map of bumpy veins on both.

Zach had to work until close on Wednesday and work early on Friday morning so he didn't get to go. Tim is still stuck out in Texas and Cin's husband didn't come but everyone else made it including TJ and his new family.

 We laughed every minute of every day. It was a vacation I really needed and certainly didn't disappoint.

The weather was spectacular and so was the company.

There was no fancy table setting. We used paper towels as napkins and just got up and grabbed what we wanted. It was awesome!

My brother is always the ultimate host. The beer and wine never ran out and  has a fully stocked bar he let us trample and stumble through.

The lake he lives on is beautiful and even owns a twenty five foot boat always at our disposal.

The sunsets are breath taking.

He's an avid golfer and keeps a basket full of balls to hit off the dock and my nephew Griffin showed us just how it was done!

NOT...

Naturally I posted this to Facebook immediately and last time I checked had almost 300 views.

It was the most relaxing time I've had in quite some time. I even shaved my legs to celebrate! I haven't shaved my legs since Tim left for Texas last January and was tired of french braiding those wiry things.

I certainly wish I had this view from my own back yard but at least have a brother who does.

It was an awesome time with awesome people. My cup runneth over (another pun).

The first night it was just Massey and me there. We got there around eleven at night. We walked in and the first thing I spied was some fancy dancy looking scales my brother had. I dropped my bags and went to step onto them to weigh my tiny self when Massey stopped me and said "Mother, that's a vacuum."

Looked like a set of scales to me but what do I know? Obviously not much...


Massey and I had to work on Saturday afternoon at three so we loaded up the night before and bounced at six AM. My sister hitched a ride back with us so was another fun trip even though were leaving paradise. We got home in time to drop off luggage and change into work clothes. Worked until after ten thirty and got home close to midnight but was well worth it.

It's hard to beat being with my brother and sister. I'm one lucky sib, always have been.

The youngest is now fifty five and oldest sixty two but we're still the kids in the above photo.

Trust me, we're brother and sisters and pretty pumped about how lucky I got!

Til next time...COTTON