Thanksgiving and Decorating Granny & Poppy's House

Well, I hate to tell everybody this, but...we didn't get ANY pictures of Thanksgiving. We were just having such a good time, and we stuffed ourselves so much...we just straight up forgot.

But, never fear! Juliette's first Thanksgiving was a success. She was thrilled with the people and the music (including "Alice's Restaurant" and "The Turkey Song") and had a very good time hanging out in front of the fire. She loved looking a her great uncle Marty ("Goofy Mary" as cousin Madeline likes to call him) and had a good time being passed around the assembled guests. We had a fairly good crowd at my parents' house this year, which included the aforementioned Marty and his wife, my mom's sister Bridget and their two boys Ryan (of Pokey Lafarge and the South City Three fame) and Alan, my uncle Dan (Kathy's boss), his wife Tina and their three kids Maggie, Connor and Colleen, my Grandma (Ma, as she is now known) and, after dinner, Maureen, Kevin, Maddy and Lydia showed up. We ate way too much turkey and pie and drank our fair share of beer and wine.

Side note about the beer; I brought Blue Moon but no oranges, so instead I poured half a shot of Blue Curacoa into a pint glass and then poured the beer on top of it, which had almost the same flavor that I was going for but turned the beer a swampy greenish color which became quite a nice conversation piece.

But the biggest conversation piece was, of course, Juliette, and how awesomely cute she is!

The day after Thanksgiving, instead of hitting the ridiculous sales and facing possible trampling death, we went back to Granny and Poppy's for breakfast and to help them decorate their house for Christmas. I love my parents' house at Christmas, it's so pretty and awesome. Here's a taste:

I look awkward, Christmas 2009, photo by Lori Weier

But making a house look this good takes a lot of work. And a lot of child labor.

Maddy tries on the new tree skirt, which is more of a tree poncho on her.

Juliette gets drafted to fluff the garland.

Jules worked hard, and finally got so tired she had to relax a little.

Jules gets cozy for a nap.

Best napping spot EVER.

As good as that nap was, she found another spot that was just as good.

Or, this is the best napping spot ever.

It was a fun time, as you can see.

Every day should be like today!

We had such a good time, that before we knew it, we had eaten all three of our meals of the day there. Granted, Mo and I ran to Target once to pick up some replacement lights for some of the garland, and then my dad and I had to run back again for more lights as well as to rectify a shortage of chocolate, so our Black Friday wasn't entirely void of shopping, but we didn't stand in line all night like some crazy peoples.

So, we kicked off our holiday season with a couple of fun days, and we can't wait for all the season has to bring! We've got a cookie exchange party, a fancy party, and plenty of family traditions to enjoy! Years ago, when I worked in retail, this was my least favorite time of year. I'm glad that feeling has disappeared, to be replaced by all this happiness and happy anticipation!