Smith Family Weblog

We started Thanksgiving at Gramma’s house–my mom and Dave came down the night before, and Katie arrived from Boston just before dinner. Ava waited very impatiently, asking when she’d arrive about every 90 seconds. My mom was only slightly less excited.

There she is, tucked behind the now very grown up Tooley kids the newly expanded holiday table.

It occurred to me as we sat down that this was Olivia’s first Thanksgiving. She was a huge fan of stuffing (comes by that pretty naturally).

While we all enjoyed turkey, Gramma served Grampa crow (actually, a Cornish game hen). This stemmed from Grampa’s months-long assertion that he would not enjoy the trip they took to Alaska late this summer. In fact, he did very much. If only he could say the same thing about the crow…

The kids had to check out the lively looking bird.

Later that afternoon, we joined the Smiths for their dinner. If I could think of the ideal way to spend a day, it would be bouncing back and fourth between family gatherings–appetizers here, dinner there, dessert at both. Perfect.

We just returned from a week-long trip to Nebraska. I think we managed to see every aunt, uncle, cousin, parent and grandparent possible. We had two Thanksgiving dinners, one first birthday party and many other occasions to get together with family.

I’ll start with our visit with my grandparents–they were kind enough to host Ava, Olivia and me during the first part of the week. I joked that the neighbors probably thought that I’d left Bryan and was moving in with them based on the amount of luggage I brought with us.

Gramma and Grampa took us in stride, spoiling the girls with games, books and good food.

In most every photo you’ll see of Olivia in a high chair from this trip, she’ll be stripped down to a onesie or completely naked. The kid refuses to wear a bib, and spaghetti stains tend to set after a week. She doesn’t seem to mind the bareness as long as her tray is full.