Happy Thanksgiving 2009!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving days here in Sunny and cool California. We started the day with some decorations, we strung up these leaves on baking twine, found in the neighborhood when we went for a walk.Here is Holly playing before the big meal. She had just woken up from her nap and was hungry but luckily she waited patiently and played in her Animal Clubhouse.It was great to have her sitting at the table right next to me, and there was so much really yummy food for her to try and us to eat.Green Beans, Stuffing (with these amazing orange crazions) a baked onion dish, cranberry chutney (with pears - so yummy) Yams, Mashed potatoes, green Salad, and a Yummy Walnut Cranberry bread. of course there was turkey too!Holly tried a little bit of everything, but she was a pretty picky eater and decided today that she didn't like turkey. The food was so bright and colorful, she really liked that part of it all.Oh yes and I can not forget the corn on the cob, one of my favorites, Holly grabbed this Peirce right out of my hand and soon chomped it all down. The turkey was delicious.I convinced Joel to brine it (soak in a salt water solution) it was in there for about 14 hours, typically it is an hour a pined and it was a 18 ponder, but any amount of brine helps so less was fine.Holly liked the bread also she ate several bits of that but then would gt made if she ran into a cranberry bite. See that bruise on her hear? That is from her new favorite skill. Couch Diving!I'm actually not sure what to do with her, it reminds me of when she was around 10 months old, just before baby proofing, what a nightmare it was no rest, chasing none stop. Only this time, I can't just baby proof and be done with it.I can;t even go to the bathroom now, for fear she will climb onto the couch and fall or the entertainment center while I am in there, so I have to bring her with me, she is tall enough to open the door even.So I have to lock it while I go. After our amazing dinner we decided to whip out Rock band Beatles and play with the family, It was a lot of fun and of course Holly had to be in on the action.

She likes to sing and she especially likes the drums, but tonight it seems she has expanded her repretiore to guitar as well. She climbed up here on her own, navigating the guitar so she could have it when she got to the "top"Here you can see how she tries to get up and down, at least with these ottomans she is able to see a defined edge so I worry about her galling much less. Yet even here she will punch her luck and stand right up, which makes Mama nervous.

I wanted Joel to make me a pecan pie, but i am the only one who likes it he said, and they were already planning on making a Pumpkin cheese cake, so such a sweetie he is, he picked me up a pie from Trader Joe's. So Thankful was I!