Happy Thanksgiving!

We had so much to be thankful for this year! For our first thanksgiving in our new house, I decided to cook for our family. We were so excited to be in our own home and able to have family over for dinner. Hayden took an extra long nap to make sure he was ready for his cousins and family.

While I'll do all the cooking and decorating, Jay was pretty helpful in the cleaning while I was in the kitchen. And of course, he's in charge of the carving!

I was so excited about everyone coming over, I may have overdone it just a bit on the cooking...

But there was plenty of food! I'm a little sad I didn't get pics of all the desserts, but suffice to say no one left hungry!

Thanksgiving is a special holiday for us, I realized it's one of the few that Jay and I have spent most of together! He's never missed one of Hayden's, and that's a pretty tall order considering deployments and whatot. It also marks a full year we've been back in the states and with our families instead of so far away. I'm excited to see what our next Thanksgiving will bring!

Happy Thanksgiving...twice!

After spending four Thanksgivings in Germany, we were fortunate enough to spend TWO here in the states, in the same year! The day after we got back, we had Thanksgiving with Jay’s grandmother and some of that side of his family. Hayden was more interested in other people and in the dogs than in eating, but that didn’t stop us! We ate way too much and had a great time catching up.


We spent what was left of the weekend accomplishing mission number one: cell phones! There are of course about a million more options here than there were in Germany. It was easy for Jay, who fell in love with the iPhone in 2008. So we went with AT&T and I got a Blackberry, which I’m now obsessed with! It’s so strange to have internet EVERYwhere. But it’s convenient. I’m still learning how to use it but it’s a ton of fun!

We made some quick visits to see my parents and to see my brother and his family. Ryan and Zoe have gotten so big! They had a great time playing with Hayden and showing them their playground, their rooms and the guinea pig! Hayden’s never seen one of those before so he was fascinated. He played with Oz a little, Eric’s dog, but mostly he just barked.

On Tuesday we headed up to Virginia to see Jay’s dad and family up there. Hayden and Oscar were already kind of rotten from all the attention; it seemed like everywhere we went there were new kids and dogs to play with! Jay’s dad’s was no exception, with more dogs and more cousins.

We spent actual Thanksgiving over at Jay’s Aunt Marcie’s house and there was SO much food! What a great way to reintroduce ourselves to America, too much food. We ate and watched football and then we had a small birthday party for Hayden. He’s had two birthdays in Germany so it was really nice to spend another one with family. He had a blast blowing out the candle and eating icing, and he got some fun stuff to play with. His favorite was a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse marching band! He unloaded all the instruments and made everyone march with him. As we’ve learned over the past two years with Hayden, it’s pretty hard to say no to him!

This year we had so much to be thankful for. My happy, healthy family is safe and sound back in the states and ready to start our new chapter. We’ve gotten to see a lot of family and friends and have many more to go, but this time we don’t have a limited time frame to accomplish it. It’s so nice to plan trips and visits down the road without having to factor in a flight, a deployment, block leave or the farm for Oscar. We are truly lucky.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a blessing it was for us to all be together on Thanksgiving. We had anticipated it being our first holiday apart, but it worked out that Jay was still home. We invited our friends the Hatchers over for dinner and I spent most of Wednesday getting ready for the holiday. The tree is up, the house is decorated, and the turkey was thawed.

We had a delightful meal and a ton of fun watching our little boys play. There was more than enough food, and it was definitely more fun for Hayden than last year when he was only a few days old. We ate and ate, played with Oscar and baby toys, and of course watched the boys play Xbox. It was even more fun because I got to use so much of my Polish pottery to cook and serve!

There is so much to be thankful for and we try to remember it every day, but it's nice to have a day to sit back and reflect. And of course, eat all our favorite food!

Tradition

As I worked on our Thanksgiving meal prep today, I thought a lot about tradition. As I poured corn syrup over beans and added brown sugar and minced onion, I thought how many times I watched my mom do the same thing as a child. I also thought about that small pan of baked beans that's always at my Mamaw's house because my mom doesn't eat green beans like the rest of us. I thought how funny it is that I'm making a cheesecake because Jay loves it and doesn't eat pumpkin pie. I thought about all the times I watched my Pawpaw carve the turkey when he was still with us, and how my mom always snuck a few pieces despite Mamaw's exasperation.


I'm sure tomorrow when I'm working on the stuffing, I'll think about the pan of stuffing at my other Mamaw's that's spicy, and the small pan for those of us that don't like the heat. And when I use the buttermilk to make my mashed potatoes, I'll think about how I never understood why Cotton would drink it and actually like it.


I hope in 27 years, Hayden looks back and thinks about the things that were always the same at our house during the holidays. No matter where we were in the world or who sat down at the table with us, or even if some holidays we didn't get to be a whole family, there were some things that remained the same. And hopefully, he won't remember that Boston Market made the gravy and mom didn't :-)

Getting into the swing of things!

I'm happy to report that we all survived Hayden's first real bath! Not without incident of course, because we're new parents. Jay was hanging out with Hayden while I got the bathroom ready for his bath. Diaper, wipes, bath towel, washcloths, check the water temperature, soap, turn on the heater, close the door. Finally we're ready, and strip off his diaper. Jay goes to sit him in his baby bathtub, and is certain the water is "just too cold". I assure him I used a thermometer, and it's just right. He insists I check it again, and lifts Hayden out. So what happens when you put a baby in water and take him out? Of course, he pees. What happens when your six-foot-tall husband is holding him? Of course, he holds him right over your shoulder. So we all got a little wet, and as it turns out the water was the perfect temperature. Lesson learned! But we had fun washing him and rubbing his little baby lotion and getting him ready for bed, so it was worth it.

Thanksgiving was Hayden's first holiday, and we finally got our first family picture (minus Oscar). We spent it with our friends, The Pollards, and said goodbye to the Millers and Lambsons who are headed back to the states. Turkey, all the trimmings and of course, video games for the boys. The kids all had a blast playing with each other, and Hayden somehow slept through all the crazy noise. Oscar enjoyed the leftovers, and some much-needed attention from the kids and adults. He's been a little neglected since Hayden got here, but he's taking it well.

We continue to get used to Hayden at home. Some nights he sleeps two hours, wakes up to eat and goes right back to sleep for two more hours. More often, he wakes up at 2:30am to eat, and is awake until at least 5am before he nods back off. So we still have our days and nights mixed up, but we'll get there! He makes the best faces in his sleep, and we love to look at his little arms and hands. Like mommy, he kicks the covers off his feet, and like both of us, he likes to lay his head on his arms. He has so much personality already!