A Look Back on Our Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving Day began with a prayer of thanks, a pot of coffee, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. This has been a tradition in our family since I can remember. Jim came to pick Faye up, and they were off to a family gathering. Dad came over a few minutes after they left to enjoy the parade with us. He dozed off on the couch a few times, but Addie made sure that he promptly woke up.


At noon, we met Brian's family for a wonderful Thanksgiving feast at Mom and Pop's home(the best yet, I think). Grandparents, brothers, sisters-in-law, nieces and nephews, and family friends gathered to give thanks and to enjoy each other's company. We were told so many times that Addie looked like Shirley Temple with her little sailor's outfit (courtesy of cousin Belinda) and curls. In fact, Brian's uncle called her Shirley the entire day. She formed a real attachment to her uncle Paul and communticated to him that she wanted him to take her out to the tree swing. From his reaction, you could tell that he loved it.


My little social butterfly talked to everyone throughout the day and gave kisses to Baby CJ. I was so proud of her. Another "point of pride" for me was that Addie had Grandma K's sweet squash, the inside of the deviled eggs, and she gnawed on (and played with) a piece of bread.

Towards the end of the evening, Faye and Jim made their way back to us and joined us for a marshmallow roast, and Addie got to enjoy the swing again. Addie even enjoyed a marshmallow... well, at least she enjoyed holding it with an occasional nibble. I can once again attest to the power of prayer. I have been asking God for help and guidance with Addie's eating situation, and just recently things have been moving along very well.

On Black Friday, Faye and I woke up around 5:00 a.m. and made our way to the stores by 5:30. This is something that Faye and I have done for several years now. We knew what we were looking for, and God allowed us to find great deals. One thing that I wanted to get was a baby doll for Addie. She has little cloth dolls that we were given at our showers, but none of her dolls were baby dolls. I found a cute little doll that looks similar to her at 6 months old with a bow and a bottle. Maybe this will help her learn to be kind and gentle with her dolls. I almost finished my shopping, and my gifts that I did buy have been wrapped and put under the tree (my goal is a stress free Christmas season). If Addie gets used to seeing the gifts there and knows that they are off limits, she won't have any problems touching what she shouldn't when we go to the homes of others.

Later in the afternoon, just before the sun went down, Brian went out to set up our house lights. The weather was nice, cool, and "Christmas" feeling. Addie loved running around the front yard, drawing with chalk on the sidewalk and garage floor, and talking about everything. My job was to test and untangle the lights, Brian was on the roof (my brave man!) putting up the lights, and Faye took tons of pictures for us as we worked and played together. We loved knowing that our little girl would get a kick out of seeing our home lit in the evenings. The deal was that Addie could stay outside with us as long as she obeyed and kept her hat on. She did pretty well with that, too. Eventually, she had a little jacket on as well.

At one point, Brian called to her from the roof, and she looked up with the cutest expression. She was so surprised to see Daddy on the roof and couldn't quite understand what he was doing up there. I can't wait to see what other expressions she has throughout the rest of this month as she sees more things that are wonderful and unfamiliar to her. That is one of the blessings of having a child. We know what to expect at this time of the year, but they just watch in wonder not knowing what to expect next. Oh, Addie, this is just the beginning!

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Saturday was... well, how shall we say this. We forgot to change the alarm clock to a later time, so I woke up at 5:00 a.m. just like I did on Friday. Unfortunately, I can't always fall back to sleep, so I just got up, wrapped gifts, and worked on our Christmas card. All day, my eyes burned (I wore my glasses until 3:00- you know it had to be bad for me to wear my glasses!) and I wanted to fall asleep so badly, but I am not much of a nap person. We went outside to play with Addie for a while, watched Tim Tebow and the Gators beat the Seminoles, and then after Addie went to bed (Aunt Faye's babysitting services were called on again), Brian took me to Perkins (our place) where I finally got my Pumpkin muffin with icing. We had a great time talking and connecting.

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Sunday turned out to be such a great day. Church in the morning. Addie likes one nursery worker in particular (Miss Joy) and went right to her so they could read books together. When we picked her up, they had some questions about her signing. I guess she had been signing to them to try to communicate, but they weren't quite sure what her sign language meant (she has made her own version of some signs- toddler motor skills adjustments). We also found her with a Ritz cracker in her hand. We were glad she had accepted it and had tried it. After lunch/dinner, her nap, and the Bucs game (so close and yet so far), we went to a nearby park to play on the swings, blow bubbles, and kick our ball around. The weather was perfect. After the park,we made our way to Hardees for a light meal and then back home for the evening. It was such a wonderful long weekend.

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Now we are gearing up for Christmas and the month of December. I will be working on my December Daily scrapbook this month and doing the writing assignments to the online class Holidays in Hand by Jessica Sprague and posting a daily Christmas song so there are lots of things that I am looking forward to doing this month. Have a great last day of November!