Well it's a few weeks late (like everything I attempt to get done these days! I have even slowed down at work. But that's neither here nor there.), but here are the photos from our great Thanksgiving. This was the first time in a long time that we haven't traveled for a holiday, and it was SO NICE! Of course the upside of traveling is that you get to see everyone together, all at once, and we do love visiting Maine and Memphis to see all the people we wish we saw more. BUT. Traveling with babies is such. A. Pain. For us any excitement for the trip itself always ends up getting overshadowed by the painful logistics of fitting 4 people in a 9 foot space for 4 hours. I gaze at the childless with longing when I am at the airport. They have their nifty little roller suitcases, "Nothing to check, thanks!". They get to read Us magazines and eat a breakfast sandwich on the plane without having to give the eggs to a certain toddler who demands all of the eggies. We, on the otherhand have a stroller, diaper bag, book bag, computer bag, 2 carseats, 1 carseat base, a portacrib and always at least one giant suitcase to check. Both girls do the very best they can with traveling, but frankly, ladies, mommy and daddy need you to do better. Either that or we're going to have to start drinking on the long flights, and we don't really want to be "that family," do we? Hmm. Maybe we do. It's not like we ever drive from the airport....we'll talk about this later. This is supposed to be a post about Thanksgiving.
The point of my rambling (this time) is that it was so so wonderful to be able to stay home this year, and it's so nice to know we'll be at home for Christmas, too! The real upside is that we are taking trips to Maine and Memphis in January and February, after the holiday rush, and on a much more relaxed schedule. We're also hoping to get to Indiana in the spring, so we'll see everyone soon anyway.
So Mimi and Gaki Mike came to visit for Thanksgiving this year and we had such a nice time! We had enough food for an army, and since Lucy woke us all up at 4:30am every day that week, we had plenty of time to eat it. I myself gained 4 pounds, even though I jogged 4-5 miles per day all week. It was the puppy chow. Always the damned puppy chow. Just like Halloween, Maddie really "got it" this year, and just like Halloween, this was so much more fun than any Thanksgiving I can remember. She loved all of the cooking and activity, and of course all of the company. We have a whole separate post of pre-Christmas pictures, we got the tree right up the day after Thanksgiving, but I know I won't get to that tonight. I do love the blogging because it really makes me stop and take pictures, something I've never been good at. We had a yummy menu that had NO STUFFING and NO SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE. Sorry dad.
Lucy on Thursday morning, enjoying her bottle while the rest of us look on with bleary eyes, begging her to explain why we have to be up so early.
Maddie enjoys her morning baba with Mimi.
The other day Maddie looked right at me and told me "Tomowow I can have both Gwammies". This kid loves a grandmother.
Maddie shows Mimi how to make the green beans, bright and early on Thanksgiving day.
Dad worked hard all day, keeping us up to date on the latest changes in mountain lion migration and Republican ideology. (I couldn't resist. The Republican joke was for Grandma and Polly!)
Let's just STOP all this cooking and make some necklaces on the kitchen floor, ok Mimi?
Maddie LOVES Charlie Brown this year! She keeps quoting Peppermint Patty lines. We of course love him too, so we're excited about this. And yes, she refers to him as "Chowie Bwown," hence the title of the post.
Food beginning to accumulate. Please see the two very large trays of puppy chow and peanut butter haystacks to the right. I wish I could say I'm not already counting the days until I can make them again for Christmas, but I don't want to lie on the blog. Just like I don't want to drink on planes with my kids.
This one was a little blurry, but Lucy was having such a good time playing with Maddie's new brownie set that I had to put this in! She looks so skinny in this pic, but I always think of her as being such a chub!
A mid-morning dance party with Dad. Nothing unusual for our house!
Break it down, Maddie.
Maddie helping dad cook during the "final countdown". Our delicious meal included turkey, garlic mashed potatoes and gravy, brussels sprouts, corn pudding, hot rolls, homemade cranberry sauce, and green bean casserole. For appetizers and snacks we had peanut butter haystacks, puppy chow, homemade chex mix, yummy fish dips from Whole foods and crackers, tortilla chips with white queso (thanks Karyn!), and I swear a few other things I can no longer recall. For dessert we had two pecan pies, Boston cream cake, pumpkin cheesecake, apple crisp, and somehow a big cupcake with a turkey on it ended up in there. It was an amazing meal!
My sweet Lucy wakes up from her nap. She was such a good girl for her first Thanksgiving.
Karyn loads up.
Ugh, chintzy plastic table cloth. I sort of forgot about that detail. It was a gametime decision at Safeway...white plastic or nothing! We went with white plastic. Also please note this is the only time during Thanksgiving that Maddie sat at the table--she was just NOT interested. She did sit right down on the couch and watch Yo Gabba Gabba without making a big fuss. She had the bowl of chex mix to entertain her.
The last few dishes still weren't on the table yet!
Lucy just loves a crowd to watch. She sat at the table in her little high chair for over an hour. Luke and I got to eat the whole meal, uninterrupted, at the SAME TIME! A holiday first since we had kids. Lucy just watched everyone and at her puffs, and gave out a good yell every now and again. She really was a doll.
Adam, Karyn, and Dad.
Obviously my hair is having some sort of "situation", here, but this is a photo of all 4 of us and neither of the girls are crying so I thought I had better put it in. Even though I stare after those people without kids at the airport, I wouldn't trade with them for a minute (well, except for at the airport. I just can't lie about it.)! We are so thankful to have our funny, sweet girls, our health, and our family! We had so much to be grateful for this year, and we hope everyone had as wonderful a holiday as we did!
