Thanksgiving(s)

This week was full of all sorts of Thanksgiving festivities for the whole family and we celebrated the heck out of this holiday. Good thing I absolutely adore turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie! It all began on Tuesday, when Ellie's school had a Thanksgiving feast. I (was) volunteered to cook the turkey, so Luke and I took on the task on on Monday. (Luke was really not that much help). On Tuesday morning, I took Ellie into school, then came back to the house to carve the turkey and make gravy (because it's much easier to do without a two year old under foot) and then turned around and took it back up to school (all the while carting a sleeping Luke with me). It was a little hectic, but in the end it worked out well. I was supposed to stay and help serve the kids but there were already a ton of helpers and not much room for all of the extra people so Luke and I were dismissed.

Apparently Ellie had a fabulous time and even tried lots of foods that she doesn't normally eat. When she got home, she told me that she ate "turkey and ketchup" and then she said she had "carrots and ketchup". I thought that it was completely disgusting that they would even offer ketchup to eat with turkey and carrots, but it turns out that "ketchup" was actually cranberry sauce. And man can my girl pound down some cranberry sauce! I think we found her new favorite food.


On Wednesday, Luke and I cooked yet another turkey (this time with the help of my parents and both Luke and I weren't much help) and went to the Thanksgiving feast at the school where Marty and I work. (Ellie went to spend the day and night at Oma and Opa's house.) Everyone at work was very excited to meet Luke, and Marty and I showed him off proudly (many of the students commented that they'd never seen a baby with "orange hair" before). All of the students and their kids were there eating and dancing and laughing, so it was loud and chaotic...but Lucas slept through the entire thing. For about three hours he snoozed while he was being passed around from co-worker to co-worker in rooms with tons of people and blasting music. He certainly did not get the light sleeper gene!
The kids with their second cousin Cassin
On Thursday, Marty, Luke and I headed down to my Aunt Lanny and Uncle Floyd's house where we met up with Oma, Opa, Ellie and my dad's side of the family. Ellie once again indulged in lots of cranberry sauce and she also tried both the apple cranberry pie and the pumpkin pie. Both of the pies had dairy in them, but she seemed to think that the resulting rash was worth it. Many of the members of my family got to meet Lucas for the first time, and Ellie got to play with her second cousin Cassin which was really fun.



On Saturday we had our final Thanksgiving celebration of the week, this time with Marty's family. We had a lovely evening hanging out and Ellie had a particular blast spending time with her cousin Abby, whom she completely adores. On the way home on Saturday night, Marty said to Ellie "Did you have fun at Thanksgiving at Gram and Granpas house?" and Ellie responded "I had pie!!"

I think that says it all.