Thanksgiving 2012

Well, before all the Christmas festivities begin, I suppose I should capture the memories of our Thanksgiving! Grady's first Thanksgiving!!

He woke up with a new trick to celebrate the day....At his 6 month doc appt, the doctor caught him moving from his belly to a sitting position on the table.  She said "wow...that's more of a 9-month skill! I guess we can check that off for next visit!" I didnt even realize this is a "skill", but it definitely makes him happy :) Now he can shimmy and crawl his way to a toy and then sit up to play with it. 

Thanksgiving morning was spent decorating the house for Christmas....that is, AFTER Summer and I ran our "First Annual (Our Neighborhood) 5k!" We ran 3.2 miles throughout our neighborhood at 8am. It felt good to start the holiday with some exercise, but I was ready to get home and start the REAL fun!

Whitney was sad to hear Tom the Turkey was being packed away for next year, but she was thrilled when I unpacked her felt Christmas tree from last year!

Eric's favorite Christmas decoration is our Nativity set. We splurged on it the first Christmas we were married and its his favorite thing to put out each year.  We moved some furniture around since last Christmas, so we had to find a new home for the Nativity. Whitney was excited to help place each animal and all the important people :) 

The timing of holiday meals is always tricky with kids this age.  We couldnt make it to both sides of the family this year because of naps and meal times, but we tried to get Whitney to lay down earlier than usual in an effort to keep her awake and happy for at least one yummy meal.  While she laid in her bed singing for an hour, we tried to keep Grady awake and busy so he would nap DURING the Thanksgiving meal so that I could enjoy a warm meal :) 

Eric wrestled with our 9' pre-lit Christmas tree, taking every last light off that sucker since only 7 lights actually worked. Four on the left and three on the right.   He ended up with blisters from the whole ordeal. 

We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and stayed in our jammies until it was time to head to my parents' house. 

My dad's dad, GG, joined us and Grady napped right on time so I was able to enjoy the most delicious meal EVER.  There is no better meal than my mom's Thanksgiving meal. It never changes.  Its been weeks since that meal, but im STILL thinking about it. Sooo good. 

The kids ran out of steam, but not before ambushing Mac with some love!

So we snapped a few pics with their GG, remembering how difficult it is to capture two sets of eyes AND two happy smiles these days.

Clearly Grady was having a very drooly day...yikes!

The Saturday after the best meal ever, we loaded up the kids and headed to Eric's sister's house about two hours away.  All of Eric's siblings got together to continue our tree-decorating tradition on their town square.  

The kids had a lot of fun making ornaments for Robin's tree this year, then we all decorated it and snagged a friendly stranger to snap our family picture by the tree.  Its always a fun time and something we all look forward to.  

We had the PERFECT weather at the park and then all headed back to Lynzie's house for some Thanksgiving Round Two!

I thought I got some pictures on our camera but I guess the phone trumped the legit camera once again. 

Eric's brother made a cake for their dad, and Papa let the grandkids blow out the candles!

The oldest cousin, Kyle, and the youngest, Grady.

After a great Thanksgiving celebration, we were ready and excited to jump into the Christmas season! We headed to Magic Kingdom after church that weekend......and look who we ran into!

Whitney was VERY excited to meet Gaston in the new Fantasyland expansion! We cant wait to go back to eat at "Be Our Guest" next month!

Ive tried to post this about 6 times and it wont publish....I have a godzillion more pics from recent fun and need to make sure this blog isnt going to fall apart...but I am hoping to be back with more pics of the kids enjoying the lights and snow at Hollywood Studios, the Christmas celebration with Eric's dad's side of the fam, and several super cute pics of the kids!