Tiny Turkey

Now that we've hung the (five!) stockings and gone on an evening drive to look at Christmas lights, Thanksgiving seems too long ago to write about, but it was excellent and Cora's first holiday needs to be memorialized. Mostly because there was a turkey hat.

We drove to the lake on Wednesday morning. Not as early as we planned- packing is more involved when one of your passengers is a newborn, and then that passenger decided she needed to eat again before left and then, 45 minutes of Claire walking around the house wearing her backpack and saying "I'm ready to go to PapaGigi's house now!" over and over and OVER again later, we were on our way. Three kids in a tight straight line across the middle of the car, and me in the front with the little cooler of PBJs, fruit, and pretzels. Coldspring, TX or Bust, baby.

Stubbornly Sleeping

We arrived at 1:30 after 3.5 complication-free hours. The kids colored in their new holiday coloring books (thank you Target dollar spot) and Cora slept the entire time. In fact, she slept so well on the car ride, she basically refused to wake up for the rest of three day visit. We dreaded the evenings, but it went pretty well. Life at the lake is so much better now that my parents are in a house with extra bedrooms.

Sous Chef

Cora helped my mom cook Thanksgiving dinner. Mostly in her sleep. The fresh lake air she didn't get to feel because it was too cold outside really wore her out.

Fishermen

Landon hung out with the boys- helping, running in circles, asking ten million questions- basically having the time of his life. Like any good faux-Texan, he caught some fish, rode on a tractor, rode in the back of a pickup truck, rode in a boat being pulled by a pickup truck, shot at a target with a pellet gun, and watched his uncle assemble his crossbow. It was all quite an education, an education his mom did her best to largely ignore.

Landon legitimately thought he was steering the boat home

Claire flitted between the two worlds- indoors with the coloring, cooking, and snacks, and outside with the big trucks and tractor. She really liked the old green truck. I remember playing endless games of house in the back of my grandpa's tan pickup while it sat in the driveway, so it's nice to see new truck bed memories being made by the next generation.

They insisted on taking this picture before we left on Saturday

Cora woke up for 5 seconds at one point on Thursday, so I seized the opportunity to dress her in her Turkey Day finest.

Turkey Hat! Turkey Butt! Baby Turkey!

Our dinner was delicious- my mom did a fabulous job as always, and I loved getting to sip wine and hold my turkey-hat-wearing baby throughout the afternoon.

Tryptophan

On Friday my mom and I drove out to civilization in search of some discount shopping. We found everything we desired at a TJ Maxx outside Conroe- my Christmas presents (no opening till Christmas), some Christmas decor for my house (silver and sparkly!), and a sparkly sweater I want to host a holiday party just to wear. We finished so quickly (1 store, so many great sweater dresses) we stopped at a Mexican place for some appetizers and my first margarita in 9 months. It was everything I dreamed it would be over a long, hot margaritaless summer.

Bedtime stories, by Landon

That night, Landon read everyone bedtime stories. Because we are awesome parents, we only recently discovered that Landon can read. We'd been reading him chapter books at night, then my aunt sent him some early reader books as a "big brother" present to "read" to Cora and he opened them up and just... read them. With no help. JP and my jaws dropped and he proceeded to read every book in the stack of six with minimal input. So now he reads bedtime stories to Claire and Cora and JP and I listen and smile and continue to wonder how long he's been able to do that.

Cora, today, helping me upload pictures

And that's our Thanksgiving- great fun at the lake, moderate amounts of sleeping by everyone (except Cora, who slept all the time, except between 1-2 and 4-5 a.m.), delicious food, this Pumpkin Carrot cake (make it, it's amazing), a margarita, some sweater dresses I can't open until Christmas, the most fabulous of turkey hats, and reading. It was a lovely holiday and three weeks from today, we'll be back for Christmas!