Thanksgiving in Galveston

We have missed going to Galveston the past 2 years. Last year Hurricane Ike hit earlier in the year and Galveston was still cleaning up the aftermath when Thanksgiving rolled around so our family decided not to make the trip and stayed in the Plano area instead.

This house was just a few houses down from our main house in the neighborhood. As you can see, it didn't fare too well in Hurricane Ike. I guess the owners decided not to fix it back up so it sits like this. You can't really tell from the picture, but there are still furniture and window treatments hanging in there. It looks so odd sitting next to all the pretty, freshly painted beach houses.

The year before that my aunt Ginger had JUST had a baby and my grandmother was in Arizona with her helping her recover, But the 2 or 3 years before that, we had been renting a fully stocked beach house on Galveston Island for Thanksgiving and the WHOLE family came out to be together for Thanksgiving. When I say whole family and "we had been renting," I mean that my grandparents rented a huge beach house for their five children & spouses, their 10 grandchildren, some with spouses and some without, and their 6 great-grandchildren.

My sister, Meg, with her youngest daughter, Ella,

one of the 4 grandchildren born in the last 2 years. We have taken historical tours of Galveston, shopped The Strand, tried out several notable sea food places, and enjoyed the beach and the ocean (for those crazies who still want to swim in cold water!!).

My brother, Conor, AKA, one of the "crazies" (age 15 - that could explain it...) It is SOO fun to be surrounded by so much family and to be in such a relaxing environment. However, we were a little crowded this year with the influx of great-grandchildren in 2 years (4 out of 6 were born in that 2 year period, not to mention a grandchild, too!) This year was the first year we had to expand to 2 beach houses!

The Kiddie Table for the Thanksgiving meal - two great and a grandchild (Jackson, Meg's oldest - Addy and Sophie is Ginger's middle child)

This is the first house we have rented every year.

This is the house we expanded to this year. My litttle family stayed in this house this time. It was nice because this one was right on the beach! The other house is just a few houses down across the neighborhood street that runs parallel to the beachline.
Ben and Jackson, enjoying the beach scene and looking for seagulls to feed. The added bonus to the trip was that Ben was given off Thursday through Sunday so we got 4 uninterrupted days with him. He didn't have to be on call for Thanksgiving with the rest of his team and enjoyed a nice stress free vacation and I got a break, too! Plus, Jackson got lots of quality daddy time on the beach making castles and feeding hte birds and they even got in the water (for five minutes, lol, and then raced upstairs to get in the warm jacuzzi garden tub!)

Grandmollie, my mom, got to enjoy a little down time with all 4 of her grandkids.

Too bad they weren't all being cheerful about sitting on her lap and having a picture taken.