November 2020

Emerson “slept in” until 6:30 today (she’s usually up at like 5:50 or 6am), so we cuddle and watched “Zootopia” for a bit. Then once I felt like I could function a little bit, I made scrambled egg sammiches for Emmie, Jeff and myself (as the boys were not yet awake, and it wasn’t worth waking them up yet for that), which were so good.

By 8am, we were done with breakfast, and we settled back down on the couch together, and I proceeded to fall back asleep and took about a 45-minute nap, while Emmie played in her food truck and a movie was on the tv. Jeff eventually took Emmie to our room to watch tv in bed, and left me sleeping on the couch for some rest, which I very much appreciated. After I woke up, I got busy making a double batch of “stick of butter rice,” to take to my parents for our slightly pot-luck Thanksgiving lunch.

Our family got there at the same time as Meg and her family, and we immediately took the baby girls back to see the new horsey, Sawdust. And obviously they liked it!

There were 15 of us (including the 4 babies) at my parents house for lunch today, so that meant plenty of food was involved, obviously. Like, two whole turkeys, one roasted and one fried, so we had two people carving turkeys. And then four women all working together to finish everything up.

In addition to the stick of butter rice, I also chose to make browned butter carrots. And wow, yummy. Megan made bacon-wrapped green bean bundles & squash casserole, Mom made the dressing (both “regular” and gluten-free for Meg) & cranberry sauce, Aunt Q made the sweet potato casserole, and Grandmommie made ambrosia salad and angel biscuits. Such goooood food!!

Kensley was folding her hand so sweetly when we said the blessing for lunch.

I tried to get small portions of everything, but even still, I couldn’t even half of this before I got too full!

We didn’t want to run off right after lunch, so we forced Emmie to take a nap, but she would only do that if I laid down with her. Of course, I had no objections to that (to take my second nap of the day), and we both slept for a short 30 minutes. The second she popped her eyes open, she was like, “I did it, can I play now?”

We did stay and play for a little longer, and then we headed on home for a quick stop & to pick up Pretzel. Our drive down Meridian Road under the canopy was beautiful, and I loved it as always.

Next up, was play time and dinner at Nana & PopPop’s house! While I helped Nana finish up dinner stuff, Jeff, Emmie & the boys played on the swing in the backyard.

We had some slight variations from lunch to dinner, but everything was just as yummy for our second Thanksgiving meal! (The funny thing is, the bread wasn’t ready at time of photos for either lunch or dinner, but both were delicious!)

Aaaannddd once again, another plate of food I couldn’t finish but wished I could have, because it was so good!

We went for a short little walk after dinner, and it had actually cooled down a little bit, and felt really nice. Emmie couldn’t quite make it the whole way, so Ryan had to carry her back about halfway back to the house.

Nana might have gotten a little carried away with the amount of pies she made. Just maybe… Pumpkin, pecan, chocolate mousse, and “banberry,” which is banana & strawberry. I had half a piece of the chocolate, and 1 bite of the other three, just so I could ensure all were yummy. 😉

I think you can probably tell, but Emmie really liked the chocolate pie.

We almost always forget to take a family picture with the Pullen’s, but we were proud of ourselves for remembering tonight, and I was proud of me for getting the self-timer on and the phone set up in the kitchen cabinet 🙂

Emerson chose the book for bedtime, and she picked Ryan to be the one to read it to her. It was really sweet. She tried to say she wasn’t tired and didn’t want to go to sleep, but that’s no surprise. And after only a teeny-tiny nap, of course she was tired. And she fell asleep almost instantly!

Jeff was exhausted and went to bed early tonight, and I’ve been watching Netflix while I blog on the computer in the front room. I’ll probably finish this episode and then head off to bed too, although I’m sure the boys will stay up until closer to midnight.

Thankful for many things today and every day, like both of our great families, stable jobs, a cozy house, friends, our church, a new baby on the way, and more… Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!