This Thanksgiving we traveled from
Newberry SC to Columbia SC to celebrate Thanksgiving Dinner with Uncle Joe and Aunt Patsy. At one point during the evening's festivities, we all gathered to take a photo together. But now let's start from the beginning, . . .
As is our tradition, we began the day by watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. This means one thing and one thing only to Leia Rose: Playing with the Christmas Toys!!! (It's the first time Leia has seen them in a year!) : ) The Christmas Toys are: the "Rudolph Guys" (from the TV Special "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"), Santa's Village, The Polar Express Train, (and also the nativity puppets and Fisher Price Nativity Set that we haven't gotten out yet).
Ah yes, the "Rudolph Guys" are always the favorite. : ) This year Leia Rose favored the reindeer (as always) sand Annie
always seemed to go for the "Dolly named Sue." : ) (Actually I think the rhyme goes, "a dolly
for Sue," but Leia has always called her Sue anyway. : )
And at the end of the parade: there was Santa!!! The Holiday Season had officially begun!
Then it was time for Aunt Cassie to read Leia Rose a very special Thanksgiving book.
And before long, we were on our way to visit Joe and Patsy. Leia Rose called
Oma and Papa on the way to wish them a very happy Thanksgiving as well. And this gave Leia Rose a perfect pose to show off her new pretty dress that Grandma gave her. See the beautiful ballerina slippers as decorations? One guess as to which dress is Leia Rose's favorite now. : )
After arriving at Joe and
Pasty's, Annie didn't waste any time before initiating one of her favorite Grandpa games. You know how you might give someone "five"? Well, in this case Grandpa says, "Annie, give me
one." And Annie reaches out her finger and gives him "one." ; )
As you can see, it was a really joyous day for everyone involved! We were all simply enjoying just being together. : )
Patsy was a smart lady and had some new
Lincoln Logs for Leia Rose to play with. She almost immediately built a nice stable for the reindeer of the "Rudolph Guys." : )
And Annie was absolutely enamoured with
Pasty's big snow globe, . . .
. . . and even more enamoured with the wind-up mechanism on the bottom.
And then it was time to eat
Thanksgiving dinner. I'll admit that this was the only time that there were a couple of tears rolling down my cheeks because we had to eat in two separate rooms, . . . and it was our little family of four that was banished, . . . again. (It was nice for Grandma to join us, though.) I never complain about it or anything (while Grandpa did mention missing Grandma quite a bit), but I just couldn't help shedding a tear. I'm not quite sure why this makes me so sad. I guess I consider the actual meal to be the central activity of Thanksgiving, and not eating it all together (squished or not) makes me feel like we might as well be in separate states.
And we could have squished all together at that table. We could have. And should I mention that we had cold turkey again, too? No, I shouldn't mention it. The rest of the food was so amazing, and with piping hot gravy
ladled over the top of that meat, I hardly even noticed this time. So now to leave my petty
sadnesses behind and go on to the general
gaiety of the evening . . .
Kudos to Patsy for finding a really fun cookie-decorating project for Leia Rose to do after dinner! And Leia even made a cookie for each person! They were beautiful!
To add to the kids delight, the girls got to open
their Christmas gifts from Joe and Patsy early. (This was probably a mistake on my part. The gifts were just so very
spectacular that they really should have been saved for Christmas. But on the other side, I wanted Joe and Patsy to see the kids' reactions. What a pickle.) Annie got a cute Shining Star Pet.
And I've never seen Leia Rose so happy to get the Bella
Dancerella Ballet Studio! (It's two
DVD's, a ballet bar, and two mats that teach all the positions/dances of ballet through song, advancing you all the way to Swan Lake!) The only problem with this was that Santa had already gotten the same exact thing to give to Leia on Christmas morning! Oh my. We just HAD to let Leia open it, though. She was WAY too excited about it not to. I mean, here she is in her little ballet shoe dress just sitting in awe of this thing. Yeah, we just had to cut our losses and play with it. : ) Leia Rose had lots of fun watching the DVD on subsequent days, . . . but she got too frustrated with doing the actual steps on the mat and
stretches with the bar. It takes practice, of course. Our little perfectionist! : )
And, finally, we all gathered to take a nice family picture together. Such a nice end to a very wonderful evening! : )
This Thanksgiving we traveled from Newberry SC to Columbia SC to celebrate Thanksgiving Dinner with Uncle Joe and Aunt Patsy. At one point during the evening's festivities, we all gathered to take a photo together. But now let's start from the beginning, . . .
As is our tradition, we began the day by watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. This means one thing and one thing only to Leia Rose: Playing with the Christmas Toys!!! (It's the first time Leia has seen them in a year!) : ) The Christmas Toys are: the "Rudolph Guys" (from the TV Special "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"), Santa's Village, The Polar Express Train, (and also the nativity puppets and Fisher Price Nativity Set that we haven't gotten out yet).
Ah yes, the "Rudolph Guys" are always the favorite. : ) This year Leia Rose favored the reindeer (as always) sand Annie always seemed to go for the "Dolly named Sue." : ) (Actually I think the rhyme goes, "a dolly for Sue," but Leia has always called her Sue anyway. : )
And at the end of the parade: there was Santa!!! The Holiday Season had officially begun!
Then it was time for Aunt Cassie to read Leia Rose a very special Thanksgiving book.
And before long, we were on our way to visit Joe and Patsy. Leia Rose called Oma and Papa on the way to wish them a very happy Thanksgiving as well. And this gave Leia Rose a perfect pose to show off her new pretty dress that Grandma gave her. See the beautiful ballerina slippers as decorations? One guess as to which dress is Leia Rose's favorite now. : )
After arriving at Joe and Pasty's, Annie didn't waste any time before initiating one of her favorite Grandpa games. You know how you might give someone "five"? Well, in this case Grandpa says, "Annie, give me one." And Annie reaches out her finger and gives him "one." ; )
As you can see, it was a really joyous day for everyone involved! We were all simply enjoying just being together. : )
Patsy was a smart lady and had some new Lincoln Logs for Leia Rose to play with. She almost immediately built a nice stable for the reindeer of the "Rudolph Guys." : )
And Annie was absolutely enamoured with Pasty's big snow globe, . . .
. . . and even more enamoured with the wind-up mechanism on the bottom.
And then it was time to eat Thanksgiving dinner. I'll admit that this was the only time that there were a couple of tears rolling down my cheeks because we had to eat in two separate rooms, . . . and it was our little family of four that was banished, . . . again. (It was nice for Grandma to join us, though.) I never complain about it or anything (while Grandpa did mention missing Grandma quite a bit), but I just couldn't help shedding a tear. I'm not quite sure why this makes me so sad. I guess I consider the actual meal to be the central activity of Thanksgiving, and not eating it all together (squished or not) makes me feel like we might as well be in separate states.
And we could have squished all together at that table. We could have. And should I mention that we had cold turkey again, too? No, I shouldn't mention it. The rest of the food was so amazing, and with piping hot gravy ladled over the top of that meat, I hardly even noticed this time. So now to leave my petty sadnesses behind and go on to the general gaiety of the evening . . . 
Kudos to Patsy for finding a really fun cookie-decorating project for Leia Rose to do after dinner! And Leia even made a cookie for each person! They were beautiful!
To add to the kids delight, the girls got to open their Christmas gifts from Joe and Patsy early. (This was probably a mistake on my part. The gifts were just so very spectacular that they really should have been saved for Christmas. But on the other side, I wanted Joe and Patsy to see the kids' reactions. What a pickle.) Annie got a cute Shining Star Pet.
And I've never seen Leia Rose so happy to get the Bella Dancerella Ballet Studio! (It's two DVD's, a ballet bar, and two mats that teach all the positions/dances of ballet through song, advancing you all the way to Swan Lake!) The only problem with this was that Santa had already gotten the same exact thing to give to Leia on Christmas morning! Oh my. We just HAD to let Leia open it, though. She was WAY too excited about it not to. I mean, here she is in her little ballet shoe dress just sitting in awe of this thing. Yeah, we just had to cut our losses and play with it. : ) Leia Rose had lots of fun watching the DVD on subsequent days, . . . but she got too frustrated with doing the actual steps on the mat and stretches with the bar. It takes practice, of course. Our little perfectionist! : )
And, finally, we all gathered to take a nice family picture together. Such a nice end to a very wonderful evening! : )
1 comment:
Sorry about getting banished!! :( I would have been upset too. (I take it they don't read your blog? ;) ha.)
Looks like you had a nice time otherwise though! And what a darling dress!!!! Too bad about the duplicate gift though. I imagine you were probably disappointed to not be able to give it to her yourself on Christmas Day... but maybe you can find a substitute now instead? :)
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