Thanksgiving, Part 3

So, dear reader, Thanksgiving has come and gone. The holiday was extra-special with sweet Zoey around, of course.

The Millers gathered at the Manor on Friday to feast. Grandpa John, Grandma Joyce, Uncle Bill, Uncle Jim, and Carolyn joined us. The Manor was decorated Thanksgiving-ly, as I spent the bulk of my "free money" from Pier 1 on browns, oranges, and leafy things.

John cooked a fabulous all-natural turkey. Joyce started her famous ham here at our house; John got up before dawn to finish it. We prepared mashed potatoes and stuffing. Joyce brought green beans and pie. Then added some hot rolls. Jim and Carolyn supplied cranberry salad and fixin's for the next day's luncheon. Yum.

Ole John and Joyce even surprised us by cleaning Grandma Betty's silver for the occasion. How cool?! :)

We all gathered 'round our dining table which has been moved into the large front room. We hadn't done anything with that room until T-day. (Bill said he actually forgot it even existed. We did, too, sometimes...)

The room has such great light (with a big window), I'm glad we are using it now. -I'm there right this minute. Zoey is quietly playing in her swing and the snow is falling outside. I could make an entirely new post all about it, but I digress...

After dinner, John and I had a special meal to prepare. Zoey's first with solids!

Yeppers! We thought we might wait longer. (I've been told to wait until she gets her first tooth- as a sign her body is producing the right stomach juices.) But she's been drooling with teething and now is REALLY interested in what other people are eating... so we went for it. Her Grandma Joyce presented us with a silver baby spoon given to her from John's Grandma Betty (My John/Ole John's Mother). The spoon was specifically for the first grandchild. And here she is!

We mixed up some rice cereal with breastmilk (in a Cobalt Fiesta ramekin). She ate it like a champ! She never spit it out once! Which I'm sure was hard because she was surrounded with paparazzi-like photographers. (I told the family to at least let her eat the first bite uninterrupted. They agreed. After that, it was all-out flash city!) She continued to eat and enjoy. John was more than delighted to be the first one to feed her. He's been waiting ever-so patiently.

Most of us took a turn spooning the goodies into her mouth - even Uncle Bill. :) Uncle Jim and Ole John decided to remain photographers... hmmm... '50's Dad fears', perhaps?! Just kidding. :)

Leading up to this moment, John has been chomping at the bit to get her cereal. When we decided Thanksgiving was a good day, he was dismayed to not be able to find organic cereal. We even tried Mother Earth Foods. So we ended up with some good stuff from Giant Eagle.

Here she is slowly joining the world of solid food eaters. (Slowly, I think the breastmilk to cereal ratio was about 100:1, but still we add a bit more each time.)

I'm sure many more fun things happened over the Turkey holiday, but I have been trying to write this post -starting-and-stopping- since Friday... so, I'm ending it here and will post more current items soon.