Southern's First Thanksgiving

Our first Thanksgiving of the year was at Allen and Dori's house. We made it into Yoakum late that night and headed straight for their house. We also celebrated Parker's birthday as he is turning (gasp!) 27 next week. We gave him a nice Parker brand pen which turned out to be perfect since he was just at a mock trial competition and was the only one there without a nice pen. Yay!The next morning, we went over to Dustin's granny's for the big Brandl bash she throws every year. There is usually about 30-40 people there on Thanksgiving Day. Southern got to meet some of them for the first time. We said our hellos and then gathered in a circle to pray before the meal. Dustin has taken over saying the prayer there in his Paw-Paw's place. Last year was his first time, and it was hard for him. But this year was more about happily remembering the good times. We all ate until we were stuffed. Southern finished up a jar of winter squash, and then we headed outside. Southern got to crawl around in the grass. He enjoyed gathering leaves and playing with the water hose. He also had a little dog visit him to sniff around, and he would just grin and wave his arms in the air when the dog would walk by. We left her house to make our way back home, but we had two stops first.Poppy and DeDe were getting over bronchitis so they didn't have a Thanksgiving this year. We didn't want to risk Southern catching it, but I didn't want to be that close and not even see them. So I had an idea. We called and told them both to go stand in the front doorway of their house. We then drove by with the windows down honking, blowing kisses, and waving. It was kind of sad in a way, but I'm sure they would rather see us for a brief minute than not at all. We then stopped by my Hahn grandparents for a quick visit before heading back home.

We were running late (as usual), so two of our guests arrived before we did. We have a key hidden in a combination-coded box outside of our house, and giving them the instructions to get that key out was funny. I only wish we had a video camera hidden to catch Chuck standing on a dolly full of limestone reaching up to get it out! haha

We made it home shortly after that and started getting all the food out and ready. We had my mom's side of the family over, and we had a really good time. We cooked, talked, ate, watched football, and just had a nice evening. Southern had a meal of turkey for the first time! He wasn't too impressed and would rather be breastfed. (But he did finish his jar of babyfood today. I guess even babies get leftovers the day after Thanksgiving!!) Having our family over was a good ending to the day, and I'm just so excited that it's time for Christmas fun now! :)