Happy Thanksgiving!

First of all:
... and he wishes it with all his little heart! Parker's first "art project" from daycare. The feathers are from a tracing of his hand.
So this year, we hosted the four of us, my folks, Kath, Andrew, Emily, Adrian and Lydia as well as Andrew's mother Ellen, sister Sarah, sister Ann with husband Tom and daughter Julia.. Sixteen.
Morning was the usual flurry of cleaning, with only a little cooking. Parker absolutely refused to go to sleep in his crib upstairs (he's generally sleeping in the pack-n-play in our room, having outgrown the cradle a while ago!). So Ray gave up, and put him on Maia's bed, where he settled down quickly and took a good nap. Maia however... no nap. That said, I think she did remarkably well for all the flurry of activity and upset of routine.
Thankfully, my parents handled most of the cooking (Turkey, dressing, potatoes, green bean casserole, 2 pies), with Andrew doing some more of the cooking (spicy sausage dressing, 2 pies, gravy), leaving me with the sweet potatoes, re-heating the ham, burning the brown-and-serve rolls. Whoops.
After dinner, Adrian and Lydia played Tinker-Toy hockey in the kitchen. And Parker took a nap with Uncle Andrew. No, wait. Uncle Andrew took a nap. Parker didn't nap again the whole afternoon, and was still a happy boy (bless him)!

Ann & Tom's baby, Julia (8 months old) and Parker had to check each other out a little bit.

Julia and Parker

And Maia and Lydia had lots of girly fun together! Each is wearing a pair of my heels, here.

What's up, Turkey Butt?

All in all, it was a nice, but bittersweet Thanksgiving due to the very recent passing of Nick; Andrew, Sarah and Ann's father. So we were honored to be able to share our table with the extended-extended family.

Some lovely tributes to a fascinating man.