Thanksgiving

Since we were hosting Thanksgiving this year, we spent part of Wednesday getting ready. Here, Cora sweeps the patio with an assist from Violet, manning the plastic wickets.
Cora was so very helpful all day on Thursday as we got the house and food ready. She singlehandedly put together the bacon-wrapped sausages, and later she made the pineapple-and-cheese toothpick-skewers. She cleaned and generally helped out in any ways we asked, and later was very friendly to our guests. Stace and I were so proud! In our Black Friday shopping, he bought her a Tinkerbell doll as a "thank you" present.

Our 18-pound beauty, full of onion/carrot/lemony goodness, smothered in a stick of herb butter.

Making room for our party of 18 meant Stace had to use his creative engineer's mind. He brought in the patio table, leveled it to our dining table with 2x4s, and with the tablecloths, flowers and china, transformed it into a banquet. Cora made placecards out of cardstock and decorative leaves.

This was actually the first time we broke out Grandma's china. It was her mother's, my great-grandmother's, and I inherited it by becoming the first grandchild to get married.
Our full table - a Thanksgiving blessing in itself! Besides our family, my parents, Melly and her boyfriend Nick, we were joined by my friend Cassie and her boys, the Adams family, and Kelly's boyfriend Brad.
Cora was so excited to have Cassie's triplets, Connor, Christian and Cole, over for our feast. Cassie is a new friend from Mom2Mom and she moved to SClarita not too long ago, away from her family.
Violet has had a cold and wasn't too hungry for her meal, but she did like the crackers, pineapple and cheese.
It was great meeting Brad finally! We're so happy to know him and see Kelly (my oldest friend!) so happy.

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful! We have enjoyed a year of blessings and it was great to celebrate that together with dear family and friends.