Family days

Man did we enjoy four days together as a family with little to no schedule! Ian has had a tremendous work load recently for work and our church activities keep us running hither and yon, so a few free days were priceless.

Thanksgiving day can best be summed up with food and family. Oh, and Kylie's insistence that she was "bayhad" when Ian asked her if she was good...

Friday we slept late and when Kylie woke up the three of us spent some lazy cuddle time upstairs. We leisurely ate breakfast, played with Kylie's toys, and got ready for an exciting run to BJs . We picked up the stuff we needed for 150 servings of apple cider but Ian was disappointed that they didn't have candy canes. I'll admit now that I thought Ian was crazy when he suggested we go to Wal-Mart in search of the Christmas confection, but apparently all the die-hard shoppers had already been out and were home sleeping. We (and by we I mean Kylie ~ Elmo is a new favorite around our house) picked up a Elmo doll as tall as Kylie for her Christmas stash, found our candy canes, and headed home for turkey sandwiches and a nap for our girlie. After she woke up we decided that we didn't have it in us to eat Thanksgiving leftovers, so we headed to Applebee's for a free dinner (Ian won a gift card in the CCC golf tournament last month) and then to Babies R Us to shop for a gift for a dear friend. We arrived home late and were ready for bed ourselves, but our little one had other plans. Despite the fact that for dinner Kylie cleaned up her corn dog, her steamed broccoli ~ that she dipped in the orange sauce from the crispy orange chicken bowl that Applebee's serves, a fruit cup, part of Ian's Oriental salad, and part of my macaroni and cheese, she found half slice of toast left over from breakfast when we got home and insisted on eating her "toas." And so we waited to put her to bed...

After the parade on Saturday we headed to Adam and Traci's house for some of Adam's famous beer can chicken (don't panic, he made one with cola that we fed to Kylie) and a visit with his parents. While we waited for the chicken to finish, Ann patiently cracked open nut after nut for Kylie. Kylie was fascinated by the entire process and couldn't keep her hands out of the bowl. She wasn't strong enough to use the crackers as they are intended to be used, but found that they worked quite well as chopsticks.

"Check this out, these chopsticks are easy to use! Now I'll just bite this walnut to open it..."

Sunday was a relaxing day at Mama's. I had made several turkey pot pies with my turkey leftovers and so I took one for our lunch. While we waited for the biscuit topping to finish, Kylie entertained herself by climbing up on the couch, standing, (which she knows she is not supposed to do) and proudly pointing to the painting on the wall while proclaiming "boat!" (As if her show of intelligence would free her from consequences from standing on the couch). After she changed out of her church clothes she (and several of us grown-ups) took naps. There is nothing like a rainy Sunday afternoon nap! Later Kylie enjoyed some snuggle time with her grandma (Ian's mom) while snacking on some dried fruit. We're trying to branch out beyond just raisins...

All in all, our four days of 24/7 non-stop family time came to an end much too soon. This morning Kylie was incredulous that Ian wasn't still in bed when she woke up! She kept walking into our room and bathroom looking for him. I reminded her that Daddy was at work and then she kept on trying to get into his office to play with him during the day. Now I guess we'll look forward to his 1 1/2 weeks off at Christmas!