Toombs Tribe Thanksgiving 2008

My mom's side of the family (The Toombs) always gets together for Thanksgiving. "The Toombs Tribe" is the name of an online board where the family keeps in touch. Once when we were trying to explain the term "maiden name" to Christian, we realized that he thought my mom's maiden name was "Tribe" because he'd always heard us talk about the "Toombs tribe." :)

Now, I've heard lots of people talk about Thanksgiving traditions, and how the day always starts out with watching the parade on tv in pajamas, then eating a nice meal at home with family...

I have to say that Thanksgiving in my family looks a lot different from that.

Here's a shot of it:

Yes, it looks more like a church potluck than a family Thanksgiving meal.

That may be because it is in a church building, and it is sort of an "organized" potluck in that everyone signs up to bring part of the meal. But it is a family meal...since my mom is one of 8 children, it takes folding chairs and folding tables in a rented church hall to accomodate everyone!

It's the one time each year that this whole side of my family gets together, so we celebrate lots of things on Thanksgiving day. For instance, this year, we celebrated 3 new baby boys with a baby shower. (2 births: Isaac and my cousin Kellie's Dylan and 1 arriving soon: Nathan & Bre's Aiden)

(Christian and Jacob helped me make the diaper cakes for Dylan & Aiden, and my mom made the cookie bouquet in the center of the table -- so cute!)

Nathan & Bre practice with Isaac to prepare for Aiden:

We celebrate Christmas on Thanksgiving day as well with a gift exchange (we draw names), and we used to hunt Easter eggs, but that didn't happen this year... I'm not sure why.

The pinata showed up as usual though... I'm not sure why we do this

(to celebrate the birthdays maybe?)

I do know that it used to be one of the highlights of my Thanksgiving (I never knew having a pinata on Thanksgiving day wasn't typical), and now it's a whole new generation out there busting that thing to pieces each year.

Isaac meets Aunt Dorothy...

and is mesmerized by her necklace.

"My First Thanksgiving" turkey hat & bib


Christian found some National Geographic magazines and was reading those for a while!

My grandmother passed away the week before Isaac was born, so this was our first Thanksgiving without her. I know she'd be so happy that the Toombs Tribe Thanksgiving carried on!