Happy Thanksgiving!

As I've posted before, we were originally planning to go to to Seattle for Thanksgiving, but finances didn't work out to allow it.  It was a big disappointment, but we were able to truly enjoy the day here despite that.  We were invited to a couple of different places, and chose to attend an extended family gathering at the house of one of Daddy's aunts that was a little over an hour's drive out of the city.  I'd baked a cake for Munch's birthday that had been a BIG hit with this aunt, and she specially asked me if I could bake it again.  Being that I'd 'cheated' and made it from a box mix and pre-made frosting, I had no problems with doing a repeat performance...but I figured the ladybug theme I'd done for the birthday wouldn't quite fit a Thanksgiving celebration, so I altered some decorations a little. ;)  It turned out beautifully.  And for those of you who are curious...it's red velvet, with a bag of mini chocolate chips mixed in (most of them sink to the bottom and make a kind of chocolatey crust, which hadn't been my original plan, but worked out nicely), and it's decorated with cream cheese and chocolate frostings and dyed coconut flakes.

So we headed up to the party after Munch finished her afternoon nap, and arrived to find a random assortment of various relatives from both this aunt's side as well as her husband's side of the family.  Munch was by far the youngest there--everyone else was teen and above--and as such, she got more than her fair share of attention. ;)  She discovered the stairs (the house is split-level), and made Daddy and me go up and down, up and down, up and down, until we flat-out rebelled and steered her away from them every time she came near.  She discovered their cat and responded the same way she responds to ours, and the kitty was nice enough to allow her to touch and giggle...she's getting much better about not grabbing cats' fur, which I'm sure helped.  She played with the toys we'd brought, stared and smiled and laughed at all the people, and generally had a good time of it.  And so did we...Daddy watched the football and played games with the younger cousins, and I hung out with the aunts and grandparents.

Before the meal, I wanted to try to get a family photo, as we'd done last year on Thanksgiving.  I was concerned that Munch would make a mess of her outfit if we waited until after eating, so we tried to get one before the meal.  Another aunt and uncle teamed up to try to coax a smile from our increasingly irritable (she was getting tired and hungry) child, but weren't successful in capturing the smile when it came, unfortunately.  So this year's Thanksgiving photo bears some remarkable similarities to last year's...She's just a bit bigger.

                     

Daddy's aunt has a keyboard piano that was on all evening.  At various times different people plunked away at it...And of course Munch had to take a turn as well.  It kept her busy for quite a while, which was nice, since it distracted her from those fascinating stairs...

And when mealtime hit...well, she pigged out.  I have no fears about her following in the 'completely stuffing oneself' Thanksgiving tradition.  She had at least 2 helpings of everything--turkey, fresh strawberries, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, creamed corn, bread, stuffing--and was still picking up little crumbs from her tray after everyone else was long finished.  She went to bed before the pumpkin pie and Mama's cake became available, but I think she'd had enough regardless...she wasn't gonna miss it.  :) This is a shot of her still 'cleaning up' at the end of the meal.  This kid is serious about eating!

So even though plans didn't work out like I'd really wished they could have, we had a lovely time.  Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, and welcome to the holiday season!  :)