This was our first Thanksgiving as hosts! We spent much of the weekends prior to our guests arrival buying and returning different dining room rugs (4), chargers (6), runners (3) and cloth napkins (2) until I was satisfied with our table display. (These pictures don't do it much justice.) Andrew had his own special Thanksgiving plate and seat at the head of the table.
The Tuesday night before Thanksgiving, the doorbell rang unexpectedly - and to my surprise it was my parents - a day ahead of schedule! They spent the previous week exploring southern California and finally listened to my pleas to come visit us early! Andrew was excited to see Gram and "Pop" as Andrew now calls him and he warmed up to their arrival very quickly. Gram and Pop spent Wednesday baby-sitting Andrew and cleaning my floors (I was supposed to do that BEFORE they arrived, but they came early!) - so, by Thursday I think they were very relieved to have Aunt Amanda come to help with our little handful!
"She's coming..." my dad replied.
Then I heard my mom say, "Watch out little boy!"
I ran across the playground, and there's my mom trying to ride a bike on a very narrow path, with a little boy running away from her wobbling bike.
I ran over to suggest she walk the bike, and noticed a large clump of dirt on the handle bars.
"Oh, I fell," she explained as she tried to gracefully dismount.
We walked the bike up to join the others, but when she got back on to show us that she truly knew how to ride a bike... she promptly fell back off after a good 45 seconds up. I hope you can enjoy these pictures and just know she was laughing in them and no grandmothers were injured in the shooting of these photos.
After the playground excitement, we headed back in for dinner. Mike was a very relaxed chef and prepared a delicious dinner (as usual) - sage, rosemary and thyme seasoned turkey, savory sausage stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, candied carrots and canned cranberries (for Aunt Amanda).
Unfortunately, Andrew got pretty sick that day too... he had a fever and was just not himself, wanting to be held and sleeping large amounts of time. He was on an antibiotic for yet another ear infection (I think number 4?), but it was either not working or Andrew had a virus. Since none of the rest of us got sick (except Amanda being hung over one day), we are pretty sure it was a result of the ear infection not clearing up. We took him to the doctor on Saturday and sure enough, now both ears were infected. The doctor gave us a new antibiotic, which Andrew then promptly developed an allergic reaction to with a rash all over his body. The poor kid was really out of sorts and our poor guests were very patient with us while we catered to our sick baby's needs and weren't able to entertain them much.
The rest of our visit with Gram, Pop, and Aunt Amanda was spent hanging close to home - playing cards, doing shots, going to a couple local wineries and shopping - making short trips to the new outlets, Target, the mall, Toys'R'Us for Andrew's Christmas present, etc. We were so grateful to have their company for Thanksgiving - it would have been a hard holiday to be by ourselves on - and I can't wait to see them again for Christmas in a couple of weeks!
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| Concannon Winery - owned by Cupcake Wine |
