Thanksgiving

I have always loved Thanksgiving. The food, the family, the release of new movies, and did I mention the food? This year Nick joined us a the dinner table. Nick is very different from Gabriel as a baby. Gabriel has always been a picky eater. Nick is more than happy to eat just about anything he can get his hands on. Thanksgiving was no different - he ate a bigger variety of food than Gabriel, and very possibly more food than Gabriel. He happily ate turkey, sweet potatoes, green beans, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce. Gabe ate a little turkey, as long as we referred to it as chicken, two bites of cranberry sauce, some fruit, and acted like he was going to choke to death on the one bite of mashed potatoes (plain) that he was convinced to try. However, we always carry children's nutrition bars, and my MIL is more than happy to feed him other things.

After dinner Pigpen and I, along with his older sister, went to see Four Christmases, which is the first movie I've seen in the theater that wasn't a children's movie, since... I can't remember. It was okay. Nothing spectacular, and I felt many of the the moments were more painful than funny. I have a hard time liking Vince Vaughn as a romantic lead. Nor did I really like Reese Witherspoon in this role. It just wasn't that funny. Still, there really wasn't anything else in the theater that sounded appealing.

After the movie we went back and picked up Nick. Gabriel was staying with my MIL for a couple of nights, because he really enjoys time alone with Grandma. Especially if that includes going to their country house (they have a small house on about 8 acres in the middle of the woods on a very big hill), which it did. Pigpen and I considered going to the local outlet center when they opened at midnight, but then decided that we really didn't need to shop enough to endure all the crazies in the cold late at night. In the end the only shopping we did on Black Friday was at a local toy store, that stocks unique and educational toys, since we still needed some presents for the children of some friends of ours.

I actually managed to stay in bed until almost 9 on Friday. Not that I was actively sleep that whole time, since Nick still woke up around 6:30 a.m., but he was content to just play with me in bed, occasionally stopping to have a snack. It was very nice. Gabriel always wants to go right downstairs when he gets up, since that means Playhouse Disney shows, breakfast, and his playroom. Nick doesn't need much to be entertained. It's nice to be able to make him laugh with a simple game of peek-a-boo.