Thanksgiving Pt 2

The other post was getting too long so here's a second part to Thanksgiving.

The turkey turned out wonderful and Tom got the pleasure of carving it.


Gregory got to enjoy his first Thanksgiving with "real" food. He enjoyed most of it and like the jellied cranberries most.


It's amazing what a wonderful meal can be prepared with a bunch of stuff from boxes and cans :-)
Before

After

As always you can go to our shutterfly page to see more pictures! http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

As Thanksgiving Day 2008 is winding down I'll reflect upon the day...wow, that just doesn't sound like me...so here are some thoughts about today...

Like many people we watched some of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and then let Gregory watch his first Christmas movie - The Star of Christmas (a Veggietale movie).

After Gregory's nap he got to open a special toy - his Little People nativity set. I am sure there will be quite a few years of enjoyment with this toy. He is just getting into playing with his Little People Airplane he has, so this is great timing.



Due to a last minute change of plans we had Thanksgiving at home this year, so last night I went out to get the turkey and then prayed this morning I'd get it thawed out. After over 5 hours in a cold water bath the turkey was finally unthawed enough to cook.

While the turkey was cooking we decorated our Christmas tree and set up some nativity scenes. Can you have too many reminders of what Christmas is really about? One of the nativity scenes is a carved wooden one from Garmisch, Germany. The other one is the Playmobil nativity set that we got while we were in Germany too. The Playmobil one has a billion pieces or so it seems, but it is so awesome and so many more real things (like the cats at the nativity).



Of course today was one of many memories and moments of reminiscing. Some of the things we remembered were the different places we were for Thanksgiving (with Bryan & Raquel before going to Germany, with our church family at the Thanksgiving Retreat, with Brian & Amanda--and the ham juice incident, etc.) And when were were taking out the ornaments there were even more memories. We opened many ornaments for the first time since we weren't able to decorate our Christmas tree last year (we were packing to move back to the USA). There were ornaments from London, a map of Germany, one which said Merry Christmas in French, one in German, and then there was one from when we were pregnant with Gregory and so many others. I know Christmas is a special time because Jesus was born, but it also is special because there are always so many wonderful memories wrapped up in this holiday.

I pray that you will create more memories this year as we will too. This year I am so thankful for memories and many of you are in them. Thank you.

not much

I know there are a couple of you out there wondering what's up with my lack of blogging. Actually I don't even know where the last couple of weeks have gone or what we even have done - obviously nothing too big to report here.

Since the past weekend both Tom and I haven't been feeling very well - colds and sinus problems. And then our weather has been pretty nice too, so we've been outside when we have felt like it.

Oh we did go to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate our friend's son's birthday - that was a good time and I think Gregory enjoyed it even more this time than the first time (back in April for his first birthday).

Also I made some more applesauce in my crockpot. Peeling 17 apples by hand is hard work - I need to find a peeler that does it for me :-)

Oh and I never posted about Gregory's dr. appt...it all went well. He got three shots - threw up in the evening - I'm pretty sure this is a normal reaction and wasn't a surprise since it happened last time too. He is 23 lbs. 9 oz. and is 33 1/2 inches tall. The dr. said he is in the 25th percentile for weight, but not to be concerned and is in the 50-75th percentile in height. So he's taking after his daddy, tall and thin .

Challenging times

Lately I have been trying to come up with things for Gregory to do throughout a day. He's only allowed one movie a day because he'd watch them all day long if we'd let him. I think there are more stimulating things out there for him to do other than sit in front of the tv.

So I have been on a quest to find those things. Here's what I've come up with so far...do you have any other ideas?

• play in the leaves (and there are tons of them in our yard!)
• play in his sandbox (but it's getting to cold for this one much longer)
• play with playdough
• help me bake something
• coloring
• playing on the computer (at playhousedisney.com)

I am sure there are other things we do, but for right now, I can't think of them. One of these days we'll try finger painting, just not right now :-)

Yesterday I painted Gregory's hand, so we could make his handprint on paper for my mom. He thought that was pretty neat...to have paint on his hands and when we ask him where his handprint is he points to the papers that were on the fridge to dry.

Yesterday Gregory also go to play with playdough for the first time at home. This was a fun time and it shows that he is growing up.

Tomorrow is MOPS in the morning and then Gregory has his 18 month check up in the afternoon, so I'll post more tomorrow.