We went down to St. Petersburg for the holiday, and we spent Thanksgiving morning relaxing around my dad's house, watching the Macy's parade and enjoying some monkey bread. E.J. also had his first experience with the Jumperoo (we had been storing it at my dad's house), and he was pretty pleased.
Inaugural jump in the Jumperoo
Two kids, two years apart, but pretty similar initial reactions to the Jumperoo!
Ellie waving to Santa at the end of the parade
E.J. and Eric hanging out
We attempted to get the kids down for naps after lunch. We had surprising success with E.J. (he still naps in his swing, which we were without for this trip, so daytime sleep was hard to come by for the little guy), but Ellie declined her nap. While they were both at least trying to sleep, however, I ran around like a madwoman getting myself ready and preparing the mashed potatoes and green bean casserole for our Thanksgiving feast.
Mashing the potatoes!
When we finally gave up on the nap thing for Ellie, we got her all dressed in her adorable Thanksgiving outfit (HELLO, FOX TIGHTS) and she and Eric left with all our dinner contributions to spend some extra time over at Gramz's house.
Ready for Thanksgiving dinner!
Ellie and Eric before leaving for Gramz's house
When E.J. woke up, I got him fed and dressed and my dad, E.J. and I headed out to Gramz's house, too.
My little turkey!
Eric's sister Kelley and her girlfriend Cathy were already at Gramz's, so we said our hellos and all spent some time hanging out while making the final dinner preparations. E.J. was immediately scooped out of my arms and I barely held him again until we left. I get it; he's irresistible! Ellie was also being particularly bubbly and outgoing, so she was a lot of fun.
E.J. and his Aunt Kelley
Ellie coloring on our activity tablecloth before dinner
Carving the turkey
Hanging out with her Papa
Before too long, it was time to eat! Everything was delicious.
My dad and our feast!
Gathered around the table
Our first Thanksgiving as a family of four!
This guy looks ready to eat! Or, you know, rip the tablecloth to shreds and try to stuff it into his mouth whenever nobody was looking.
Of course, while we ate we went around the table and all shared what we are thankful for. (Side note: that was how I shared I was pregnant last year!) A highlight of that was Eric saying that I "enrich the crap out of our kids' lives." He's eloquent like that.
After dinner, we sang happy birthday to Gramz (whose birthday was on Thanksgiving) and Eric, then enjoyed cake, cheesecake and pumpkin pie.
Happy birthday, Gramz and Eric!
E.J. with the birthday girl
Ellie was hilariously pumped about the cake, and "I WANT CAAAAAKE" was her mantra for the rest of the meal (imagine that being said with the same single-minded intensity as a zombie might say, "I WANT BRAAAAINS" and you've got a pretty accurate picture).
Going straight to the source!
Happy cake face
After dinner we helped clean things up, hung out for a few more minutes then bid our farewells to Eric's family and headed back to my Dad's house.
W. family love
The sign of a good Thanksgiving...and it's not over yet!
Back at the house, we put E.J. to bed (poor overtired little love), got Ellie outfitted in festive pajamas and went to work trimming the family Christmas tree. Once again, Ellie was very into the whole thing and we were left with an adorable cluster of ornaments front and center at Ellie's eye level. After hanging each ornament, she'd run back to the boxes to get more while exclaiming, "NOW WE CAN DECORATE!" Every time. So cute.
VIDEO: "Now we can decorate!"
Three generations of tree-trimmers
E.J. may have been sleeping, but I didn't want him to be excluded!
Sweet Ellie
Ellie's ornament cluster
What can I say? The girl loves socks.
So sweet.
All the ornaments are hung! There's nothing left to do but lay back and admire it.
And that was really it! We got Ellie to bed and the grown-ups snacked some more and drank some wine before calling it a night ourselves. It was a very long, exhausting, but awesome day!
Happy Thanksgiving!
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