Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a very yummy turkey day this year - I hope you all did as well! We decided to host Thanksgiving at our house this year and had the pleasure of having Richard's parents and Margaret and Rodney celebrate with us. I was a little nervous, having never cooked a turkey or any of the dishes I was preparing (except for mashed potatoes) before, but I think it turned out pretty well. 

The weekend before, we headed out to do some preparation shopping at Target and Trader Joe's and stopped to grab a quick bite to eat at Five Guys - Lily has visited Five Guys quite a few times in her short little life! The restaurant was pretty busy that day, so Lily and daddy waited for our food while I grabbed us a table. Lily is so alert and interested in everything around her; she caught the eye of quite a few people that day.

Lily and daddy at Five Guys

Eyeing our burgers...

On Wednesday, I started prepping a lot of the food so that everything would be cooked evenly and on time on the big day. I was able to prep almost all the casseroles the day before and cooked my apple pie then as well. I actually got to sleep in a little on Thanksgiving (thanks Lily!) and got the turkey going not long after getting up. Since I had never cooked one before, I did a little research online before putting the turkey in the oven. We only had a breast, since we had a smaller crowd, so I was concerned that it might dry out while cooking. Well, I came across a recipe that had a very strange ingredient in it, but it had been reviewed by several people (72 to be exact!) and every single person had given it 5 stars - so I gave it a try. I think the first part was pretty standard - pouring chicken stock and butter over the bird and then adding seasoning to your liking (I just did some salt and pepper). The next step said to take 1-2 tablespoons of mayonnaise and spread them all over the turkey - this was the part I wasn't sure about. But, I decided to trust the recipe maker and the reviewers and I spread a tablespoon of mayo all over that bird - and it worked! I've never had a moister turkey and I'll be using that trick from now on. In addition to turkey, we had some squash casserole, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, macaroni and cheese (thanks Margaret!), stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls and gravy - it was a feast! After we feasted, we dug into the desserts - we had five desserts for 6 people - it was wonderful! Sweet potato pie, pumpkin pie, apple pie, pineapple upside down cake and blueberry crumble, yum! All in all, I'd say it was a successful Thanksgiving; Richard and I have been enjoying the leftovers for the past couple of days and we're looking forward to next year!

Can you tell where the center of attention was?

Busy baby

Checking each other out

Part of the feast - green bean casserole, stuffing and olives

Our table, stuffed with goodies, before eating

This is the only picture of the turkey I have - forgot to take a picture of it unwrapped, whoops!

More goodies - squash casserole, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce

Moving all over the place

Getting changed by Grandma Libby and Aunt Margaret

Hanging out with Grandma Libby

All the desserts...

Our begonia centerpiece

Over the past couple of weeks, Lily has added two new foods to her repertoire - carrots and bananas, both of which have gone over well! We had a very messy night when trying carrots, but that's pretty much par for the course. Lily loves to put her fingers, her bib or the highchair tray in her mouth in between bites, which can make for quite a mess by the time her meal is done. Right now she's eating twice a day, having her cereal in the morning (now with bananas!) and veggies at night, with a little cereal mixed in. We're going to try some applesauce next, so we'll keep you posted on how that turns out. Here are a few pictures of Lily's mealtime:

Squash is yummy!

This bib is almost as good

All done...

Friday we headed to pick out our Christmas tree! It's our tradition to get our tree the day after Thanksgiving and I was excited to see what Lily would think of the trees. Well, so far she is not impressed. In fact, she's not much of a fan at all! While we were picking it out, she touched one tree and shivered and didn't try touching them again. When we got home, we decided to try again and it did not go over well. In fact, she hated it! The video below shows her reaction. After that, each time she saw the tree, she burst into tears. We did try again today, and although she didn't reach out to touch it, so far she hasn't burst into tears the way she did yesterday, so we're making progress!

With daddy picking out the tree

With mommy

Our little family

And here is some Lily cuteness for you - including a video of Lily babbling away - she loves to talk and of course, her favorite thing to say is dada. We're working really hard on mama!

Naptime on her tummy

Sitting up like a big girl!

Definitely her father's daughter