Thanksgiving in Pictures

We spent Thanksgiving in Atlanta at my parents' house.  Initially, I had said that they could come to my house and bring food since I had a newborn.  But we decided to go there, where the food would be already and my mom could do all the cooking in her own kitchen.  I am finally getting around to posting photos... such is life with a little baby!

The girls all wore their Thanksgiving clothes... Lucy has a "baby's first Thanksgiving" bib that the older two also wore.

And Lucy needs a bib, because she drools like crazy!

Cecilia wore her turkey shirt that Gramma bought for Caroline three years ago, and this year Gran happened to find a cute fall pumpkin shirt for Caroline.  They wore fall colored corduroys... I made Cecilia's myself several years ago for Caroline.  They love when they can dress up for special days!

Here are the appetizers... we had an egg casserole and cinnamon rolls for breakfast, heavy snacks midday, and then our Thanksgiving meal around 4:30.

Lucy's clothes were very fall-looking as well...

Babies all love my dad, for some unknown reason...

On her second bib of the day...

I may be biased, but I think my babies are beautiful.  I love their little perfectly round heads, chubby cheeks, and lack of necks!

smiling at Grampa again

This was Lucy's first time to meet Uncle Stephen (above) and Uncle Tim

The table all set for the big meal...

The lovely centerpiece before Stephen dismantled part of it so we'd have room on the table for all the food... and all the people.  I love how we all pile in around the table for big meals.  There's always room for one more!

Dinner included turkey, stuffing (both in the bird and in a separate casserole dish) with apples and cranberries, gravy, mashed potatoes, corn bread dressing (one of my favorites!), rolls, olives (but of course!), creamed spinach, and roasted sweet potatoes with pecans and a bourbon glaze... unfortunately, Dutch, Stephen's dog, found this last dish, which had been placed out of the way on a lower level of a side table.  We suddenly heard him lapping something: the bourbon glaze from the bowl!  Dutch, being an expensive sort of dog what with his allergies and surgeries, would of course eat the most expensive dish we had... my dad ate some more of it, but nobody else wanted to risk the dog drool.  Too bad, because it was a yummy dish!

Uncle Stephen multi-tasking.  Chris actually posted a photo of the food on the table to Facebook, and Stephen was in the background  Somebody noticed his pajama pants and commented that it looks like we got dressed up for the occasion, ha ha.  Stephen was the only one going super-casual for the day... the rest of us wore regular clothes!

Caroline was initially upset that Dutch would be there.  She's a bit afraid of him.  He loves people, and if you run from him, of course he thinks you're playing.  

But she had a great time playing with him in the yard!  We were so proud of how she opened up and started to like Dutch!

This one's my favorite

Stephen looks on to make sure they are nice to his dog ;)

No, I have no idea what that hanging blue orb is... all I know is that when you look out of the sunroom window at night, it's there, glowing...

Any time Dutch's leash was underneath him, Caroline would ask Cecilia to crawl under and get it... no longer afraid of Dutch, but still afraid of getting licked!

Chris was right out there helping to rile the dog up, growling at him to make him bark... he needs a dog of his own!  If Stephen goes back overseas for a year, maybe we should take him.  We're the only ones he hasn't lived with yet... we'd have to teach him not to chase chickens!

Maybe Stephen got that "babies like me" gene from his father?  Look again, this one's not mine... yes, there are two baby girls in the family now!  This is Chloe, my niece... my brother Mike's second child.  They came to visit the day after Thanksgiving and get family pictures made of all of us together.

Aunt Crystal reading about Lyle the Crocodile to Cecilia... this book is still at my parents' house and was one we all liked as kids.  I love the name of the little girl in the book: Clover Sue Hipple.  

Snacks again before having another big meal with Mike and Crystal... instead of turkey, we had lamb chops this time.

Mike and Tim make an appearance...

And this was the best picture I could get of Julianne, Mike's other daughter... she is a busy little 19 month old!

Cecilia got Uncle Mike to read Lovable Lyle to her, too!

Gramma gets to hold both of her grandbabies, the fourth and fifth of the bunch!

Can you tell which one is mine?

random shot from the day before... the girls drawing

Happy Thanksgiving!!!