I was in Dayton, Ohio for Thanksgiving. My family is big and chaotic and I have so many cousins I can’t even keep track of them all at this point. The majority of them are under 10… this is part of my effort to make sure I don’t forget to photograph any of the people that are important to me. I’ve heard too many photographers talk about their archive of professional work and lack of photos that actually mean something to them. I have no photos of my other grandparents who each passed away before I really started photography…I don’t want to let that happen again.
This side of my family is pretty loud, chaotic, quirky and full of life. I’m not trying to take these photos to try and flatter people, rather just to catch things as they really are. Of course some of these are pretty funny to me, but so are these people. Good times.

Stevie gets a whip cream mouth from Dad


Kit, Maggie and Jackie say the Thanksgiving prayer.

Kids getting excited before they get gifts (we celebrate half of Christmas now since we won’t see eachother then)

Joe is diggin’ on a new toy.

Dinner discussions with Karly, Gramps, Andy and Tony. Topic: Ohio State fans are over the top and their recent loss to Illinois is costing Gramps a chance to score bigger money with his $10 gamble on BCS Bowl placements in August.

Just some folks enjoying dessert. This is Granny’s “Such good food” face.

Before dinner I woke up in my brother’s apartment at the University of Dayton and was dazed by a few infomercials while trying to catch up on my New Yorker issues that came during the end of the quarter.


My sister makes herself pretty in the safety of the furthest away upstairs bedroom before dinner. Not that she wasn’t pretty already to begin with…Being a girl seems like so much work.