This year we hosted our inaugural family Thanksgiving. It was actually the first time we've ever hosted any kind of holiday meal, so we felt the full combination of nerves/ excitement/overwhelmed-ness! Despite our visions of disaster, everything went off without a hitch, and the food was pretty darn good (in my humble opinion). The holiday started off with a poultry-free pre-Thanksgiving dinner at Uncle Ron and Uncle Jhoel's house in Alexandria. While Harper didn't really appreciate Jhoel's authentic Filipino food, she absolutely loved his key lime pie and was eating it off of his fork! She ended the evening with a naked cavort through their living room. I'm sure she will appreciate these photos when she is in high school.

Thanksgiving day started early, with a 6:15 wake-up call from a very hyper 10 month old. Harper had lots of family to entertain her while I cooked a very southern Thanksgiving meal - I think she actually spent most of the day watching Daddy and Uncle Jared play Guitar Hero 3! Ron and Jhoel showed up mid-afternoon with their turkey fryer and we had a turkey cook-off on the patio. I have to say I am a huge fan of anything that reduces the turkey cooking time to 40 minutes or less, but both turkeys were delicious. Harper particularly enjoyed the yams and spent most of the meal playing "I'm so big!" with the table.

Thanksgiving Day ended with a very long bath - it took a while to get all of those yams out of her hair!