Happy Thanksgiving

A little late.

We had a nice day, and I think Oliver had a happy first Thanksgiving! When we all got up, Jon made breakfast (His eggs are better than mine, but don't tell him that), and Natalie watched the parade while we got ready.

We headed over to Mitz and Pop's house around 11. Natalie and Mitz finished watching the parade, so they could see Santa come to town. Mitz kept on in the kitchen, and we all visited and ate (I brought crab dip) until dinner. Uncle Mike and Aunt Jamie (my step-siblings) were there, as well as our friend Cindy, AKA Auntie Cindy, AKA Auntie Lush (I came up with that. Not sure why, it just came out. She doesn't even drink all that much).

Dinner was fabulous - Mitz is a great cook! We had turkey, mashed potatoes, sausage stuffing, corn/squash/carrot succotash, green bean casserole, gravy, cranberry sauce and rolls. In keeping with tradition, I had an all-white plate - turkey, mashed potatoes and a roll only. For dessert, we had pumpkin pie, real whipped cream, apple pie, and Gooey Pumpkin Cakes. Oliver tried turkey, mashed potatoes, squash and a roll - he couldn't shovel the squash in fast enough. I don't think he's going to be eating baby food too much longer. He's back to getting angry when we eat - this time because he wants some of what we are having!

After dinner, Aunt Jamie and Auntie Lush took Natalie and the dogs to the park. We hung around for another couple of hours, then Natalie and Auntie Lush got out the Poker set. haha! As we were leaving, Natalie announced she was staying at Mitz's, and fortunately for her, Mitz and Pops thought that was a good idea! Apparently after we left, Natalie was using the poker chips to "buy" things around the house (this should bode well for the cash register she's getting for her bday) - I hear Mitz needed lots of new lamps and rugs. Mitz started teaching Natalie the card suits, and then she and Pops taught Natalie how to play Go Fish (and she won!).

Had a pretty quiet weekend. Natalie and I got our hair cut. Jon hung lights. He did such a nice job - this is our nicest display yet. We had one minor snag - we use transparent red C9s over clear icicles, and ran out of C9s. Between the two of us, we hit every conceivable place that could have them, and no luck - the only red C9s I found were opaque. So Jon went out, bought some strands of clear C9s, and spent a lot of time switching out every other bulb - so we have red and white C9 strands. It looks great! Our neighbor really liked it, and actually thanked US!

I decorated the house last night (we'll get a tree next weekend). You'd think Natalie had never seen our decorations before - she's in awe. And driving us both crazy. The year Natalie was born, Mitz went a little crazy and bought us a bunch of singing animals - Rudolph, the Abominable Snowman, Santa and Frosty. Natalie has always been scared of them, but not this year. It hasn't even been 24 hours, and I'm ready to pack those things away. I called Mitz to "thank" her, and got her voicemail - I set off all of those suckers over and over again in her VM. :-)

I'll get pictures up a little later.