Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving morning - coloring with Grandpa

This was the first time Eli used markers. Luckily they were washable because he had marker all over his hands.

Davey (Uncle Munkle) looking stuff up online... he's always looking for a play or concert to go to

Eli's Thanksgiving day haircut - his hair was pretty shaggy!

Even with the lollipop bribe, Eli wasn't loving the haircut, as usual

Later, some of us went to the park on the lakefront while the food was still cooking. Here's Abbie and Hannah on the playground:

Heather and Isaac

Abbie with crazy hair after going down the slide:

Davey

Emma right side up:

Emma upside down:

Davey pushing Isaac in the swing:

Hannah flying high in her swing:

Davey, my dad, Emma, Abbie, Hannah, Ben, Rob, Heather, Isaac freezing at the lake:

Later, Ben carving the 22-lb turkey - it was delish!

Eli with my mom and Gram:

At the beginning of dinner, taken w/out the flash:

A little later, with the flash:

My dad gave Eli a spoonful of whip cream - he LOVED it...

After stuffing ourselves with way too much food, we headed over to the bowling alley. A family in our ward rented the space for the night and lots of families came - it was so fun! Eli had a blast dancing to the music (I wish I had a video because he had some serious dance moves :) I got lots of bowling ball comments (in reference to my huge belly) and did my best to bowl, but it wasn't so easy being this pregnant.

Eli with my mom, hanging out while people were bowling:

Not Your Typical Thanksgiving...

Ben and I have spent every Thanksgiving in our almost 7 years of marriage with my family (my parents, Davey, and Gram). This means I have never had to even think about making a Thanksgiving dinner on my own. Well, this year was a little different.

My Gram went to Italy a few weeks ago to meet up with some friends. Keep in mind that she is 82 years old, but very spry and energetic. However, while they were in a train station in Milan, she tripped on a bolt and broke the neck/top of her femur. Gram had to have surgery (in Milan, where few staff speak English) to have a pin placed in her hip. Since then, she has been at this hospital recovering and having physical therapy. My parents decided a few days after the accident that they needed to fly to Italy and help her, so they used up every airline mile they could muster up and went to Italy, totally last minute. They will all fly home on Nov. 29th. Gram is doing well, working on walking with crutches. She said her Italian surgeon is "dashingly handsome," which cracks me up!

Well all of this meant my parents would be gone for Thanksgiving. I thought about cooking the Thanksgiving meal for about 2 minutes, before deciding it would be way too much work, especially with Eli. So we ended up going with some friends to a very nice Thanksgiving dinner hosted by Kellogg, the business school at Northwestern. As you may know, I am QUITE picky, but I was really impressed with the quality of food. There wasn't too much or too little -we had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, tasty sweet potatoes with marshmallows, a green bean/bell pepper dish, different types of rolls and croissants, etc. We even had the option for some Indian food - basmati rice and a sweet potato curry - apparently this was on the menu because the Dean is Indian (and there were a lot of Indian business students at the dinner). Then there were lots of desserts to choose from, from an eggless chocolate cake to mini pumpkin pies.

This ended up being the easiest Thanksgiving - we showed up at 1:45, ate dinner and socialized until 4, then came home and relaxed. There was no cost, no cleanup, and no fighting the crowds at the airport or traffic on the highways. Thank you Aaron and Jenn for inviting us!

We had Davey with us last weekend and then again for Thanksgiving through this weekend.

We put a napkin around Eli's neck and he looked like a little bandit!

We gave him a lemon wedge to chew on - he loved it!

The dinner was in the Allen Center, with a nice view of the Lake behind us.

Eli chewed on that toy for a while...

Ben played some football in the snow/wind with temps in the 30s on Thanksgiving morning - he had a great time but I heard the game was pretty rough...