Jenna and Joshua: Thanksgiving in Atlanta

Here it is...only a few minutes before Christmas, and I'm just now getting the chance to write about Thanksgiving--it's been quite a busy month! As we've done for the past several years, we spent the holiday in Atlanta.

When we arrived at the house, Mom and Dad had made this house for Jenna to play in. Needless to say, she was so excited.

By the end of our time there, Joshua even played in it--he thought it was pretty cool too.

The house was very creative--it had windows with curtains, flowers to color, bricks, etc. It reminded me of some of the "houses" I'd played in when I was little--made out of appliance boxes--how fun!

We enjoyed a somewhat-leisurely morning on Thanksgiving Day. Jenna watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and loved it! She was totally entranced! Snoopy loved seeing himself on the big screen too.

Joshua played with Poppa who helped him practice riding a tricycle and walk! He was quite proud of himself, as you can tell from his expressions.

Later, we all stopped the activities of the day to get a rare shot of everyone in one picture! As you can tell from the attire, the weather was very mild--one of the many benefits of now living in the South. Gone are the days of snowy, icy, cold Thanksgivings!

Here's a few shots of Jenna posing outside too; she was modeling her fall dress.

She looks way too grown up in this one!

Here's she is with her Poppa...

Jenna and I worked on the tablescape this year as part of our contribution to the day. Here are a few pictures of the placecards we made.

And of course there was delicious food to fill the table too! Here's Mom & Dad's turkey and ham:

Here's my mashed potatoes:

Here's gravy made by all of us, but supervised by Papu:

Here's Aunt Mary Ann's sweet potato souffle:

Here's Papu's Pecan Pie Recipe made by Aunt Mary Ann:

Poor Randy got sick on Thanksgiving Day and spent the afternoon and evening in bed. Luckily, it was short-lived and he felt better the next day. This picture of the guys (sans Randy) cracks me up. They were all looking at the sales ads, and in the background it even looks like Joshua is too.

Here's a cute picture of Joshua and his great-grandfather, Papu.

Joshua finally gave up and succumbed to sleep in Daddy's arm. I can't believe he fell asleep in this position!

We continued with our crazy tradition of shopping on Black Friday. Like last year, we began the morning with Dunkin' Donuts, did a little shopping, and went to the Chick-Fil-A with the little red door (a.k.a. Dwarf House for Atlantans).

Kohl's was our main objective and it was the busiest we'd ever seen it--check out this line circling the store! Thankfully, Mom and Aunt Mary Ann were there to help keep Jenna entertained so I was able to get some really good Christmas deals!