Thanksgiving 2013: Jacksonville & Eric's Birthday

Even after returning from our Thanksgiving festivities in St. Petersburg, we had a little more celebrating to do. This past Sunday was Eric's 31st birthday, and we celebrated him that evening in addition to enjoying a little Thanksgiving meal of our own.

When Ellie woke up from her nap on Sunday, we kicked things off with a cake for Eric. Ellie helped him blow out his candles and we all quite enjoyed a little dessert before dinner.

Not 31 candles, but candles in the shape of a 31!

Make a wish!

Yup. She loves cake now.

After we finished our cake, we went to work trimming our own Christmas tree. Ellie was a bit less helpful with the actual ornament application, although she did enjoy pulling them out of the boxes. She took a particular liking to a "lizard" ornament (an iguana I brought back from St. Thomas), and offered it to Achilles at one point, presumably so he would also feel included in the fun. She's a thoughtful one!

Trimming the tree

Ellie and Eric at work

Admiring her lizard

Lizard ornament for Achilles

Checking things out. Kid-friendly ornaments on the bottom branches, please!

I know I say this every year, but I love seeing how our tree has changed over the years. We first bought it when we were an engaged couple living in Washington D.C., and it was primarily decorated with store-bought red and silver balls. This year, not a single one of those generic balls made it onto the tree, because there just wasn't room after we hung all of our personal ornaments we've accumulated over the course of our marriage. Considering we've only been married six years, we'll probably need to invest in a bigger tree shortly!

The kids modeling the finished product

Since our tree trimming we've been working on getting more decorations up, but that night we also took some time to admire our porch lights. The most elaborate outdoor display ever? Not exactly. But much more than we've been able to do in recent years!

Check us out on the top balcony!

After trimming the tree, it was time to eat. We prepared a small turkey, along with some mashed potatoes, stuffing, peas and leftover green bean casserole from Thanksgiving itself. We had a tasty Thanksgiving dinner of our own to celebrate Eric's birthday!

Family at dinner

And now, we're officially Thanksgiving-ed out! The holiday as a whole was wonderful, and our own celebration/Eric's birthday was quite nice, too. Now we're just looking forward to Christmas!