Thanksgiving

The kids and I have had a fun week. We've not done too many out-of-the-house things, but we've still had a great time. Tuesday we did do something I've wanted to do for a few years: pottery painting. Before the kids were born, I used to paint a bowl or a mug every holiday season. This was the first year I felt I could take the kids and they could independently participate. The whole thing went pretty well, actually. I did have to wipe Eli's bowl clean twice so that he could start again, but by the end the three of us walked out happy and not too covered in paint. We also made Pilgrim hat cookies. The kids loved delivering them to a few friends, after they sampled them, of course.

Today was just the four of us. We've never had Thanksgiving with just our family....we've always had family or friends, or both, join us. Although we had the TV on all day (WAY out of the norm for us!), it was a very fun, connected day. The parade is a must-watch for me and the kids really enjoyed and really got into it. After that was football, football, football, which Eli liked, and Maddux tolerated. We played some football outside, we all helped cook at some point, and we had a video chat with Grandma Cathie and Grandpa Jim.

Although the kids didn't really care for much of the main event meal, they sampled everything and never complained at all. IN FACT, when we said our breakfast prayer (before pumpkin pancakes - yum!), Eli even said (unprompted), "I'm thankful for Mommy and Daddy." It doesn't get much better than that!

Lehr and I got some sparkling grape juice for the kids to drink in wine glasses with us for dinner. That, coupled with a few candles and our china made it a very special meal. After we finished, the four of us went for a walk/bike ride around the neighborhood. It was so warm during the day that even though the sun was going down, it was still very enjoyable outside. We had a serving of apple crisp and ice cream for dessert before baths; the perfect end to our perfect day.