Our Thanksgiving

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, all five of us headed down to Houston to spend Thanksgiving with my family. We left right after lunch, hoping to be at Mimi and Bebe’s by dinner. Abbie, Carter and Bailey did very well during the 4+ hour car ride. Abbie was too excited to sleep and talked most of the time and watched videos while Carter napped. Carter slept for about an hour and was ready to get out of the car with about an hour left to our drive. We were all excited when we finally arrived!

We didn’t do too much during our visit, but with the two of them daily life is hectic enough! We spent a lot of time playing, reading books and just enjoying spending time with family.

Monday night we went out to dinner to celebrate Bebe’s birthday. We all had a nice dinner, even if it was a bit crazy with a toddler and baby!

Here is a picture of Carter and Bebe before his birthday dinner. Abbie was not in the mood for a picture.

Mimi bought Abbie and Carter a bunch of books during a recent book fair at her school. Abbie loved Run, Turkey, Run. Mimi and Bebe read it to her a million times!

Carter doesn’t usually sit still long enough to read a book. He was curious to see what was Bebe and Abbie were doing though!

Bailey even joined in on the fun, if only to get a bite of Abbie’s oatmeal bar!

More Run, Turkey, Run! If only Carter would actually sit and listen to a book.

Both kids loved spending time with Mimi. Abbie and Mimi discussed their love of jewelry (finally Mimi has someone who shares her love!) and played dress-up. Carter crawled from toy to toy. He is very interested in wheels these days. What is it with boys?!?

Mimi and Bebe’s house is no match for Carter. Even with tables moved and breakables put away, he still managed to get in all sorts of trouble. I used to think Abbie was into everything, but he has her beat! He tasted the dirt in Mimi’s potted plants, tasted the rocks in the gas fireplace, played with every outlet and cord in the house, and even managed to cut open his chin on Thanksgiving morning after a run-in with the TV stand. It is a good thing for everyone that I was in the shower when that happened. From the limited information I have managed to get from Stephen and my mom, the incident involved profuse bleeding. I am sure it is just the first of many scars for Carter.

We all had a wonderful Thanksgiving day. Abbie loved watching the parade with Bebe.

Great Grandma and Grandpa Carter came over later to help us celebrate the day. We attempted to take some pictures. It is hard to do with two reluctant subjects!

Carter enjoyed his very first Thanksgiving! These pictures show how he was the entire trip. He was very attached to his mommy, as he was not very familiar with Mimi’s house. If he lost track of me, he would get a very concerned look on his face. Once he saw me, he would get a huge smile and speed crawl to me. He eventually warmed up and even spent some time alone with Mimi.

This was Abbie and Carter’s first Thanksgiving together!

Our Family

Abbie and Me

Bebe and Mimi with the Kids

Great Grandma and Grandpa Carter, Bebe and Mimi with the Kids

Knowing that trying to cook a Thanksgiving meal with all of us in a small house would not be pleasant for anyone, we made plans to have our Thanksgiving meal at the Hotel Galvez in Galveston. Stephen and I had not been back since our wedding reception just a little over 4 years ago. It was so surreal to be back with our two kids! We showed them the Music Hall where we had our reception and let them play a little before dinner. The food was wonderful and was even better knowing we didn’t have to clean one dish!

We ended our fun Thanksgiving day by watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving!

We headed home on Friday. I enjoyed a few hours of silence on the drive home as Stephen, Abbie and Carter took naps. They were worn out from all the fun we had! Stephen and I came home to a weekend filled with unpacking, laundry, grocery shopping, and decorating for Christmas….all the joys of the holiday season!

The pictures below capture some of my favorite moments from our Thanksgiving. I love seeing how happy Abbie and Carter are together. One of my many reasons for wanting at least two children was the result of spending most of my holidays as an only child surrounded by adults with no one to play with. While I love my parents and grandparents dearly, the holidays can actually be a little lonely as an only child. It makes me so happy to know that Abbie and Carter will always have each other.

Happy Thanksgiving from The Schmitts!