Happy Thanksgiving

A belated Happy Thanksgiving! to everyone.

Main Entry:

thanks·giv·ing

Pronunciation:

\thaŋ(k)s-ˈgi-viŋ also ˈthaŋ(k)s-ˌ\

Function:

noun

1: the act of giving thanks2: a prayer expressing gratitude3 a: a public acknowledgment or celebration of divine goodness bcapitalized : thanksgiving day

Ours was great. Full and great.

Monday, Dave's mom, Lani, made the trip up from CO to stay with us. She and Zoe picked right up from where they left off on their last online chat (video chat, via instant messenger). I was so grateful to see it because Zoe's always been friendly and it's made me a little sad to see her playing shy.


Zoe and Grandma Lani


Familiar combo: Grandma Lani, Button Hat, Computer and Z


Baby loves computer

Zoe, Lani and Dave got to spend some q-time while I was at work (I'm now beholden for that lovely, short and quiet week) and my folks came up Wednesday with their truck full of T-day fixings (mom & Dave split the meal) and amenities. I was so appreciative of their help - less clean-up and more hang-time for me!!

Thursday, we hosted a small crew of family; the Alonzos 4 and Chris and Erin all joined us.

Z and Erin


Happy full

Thankfully we had a table full of my favorites: stuffing, gravy, creamed spinach, pumpkin cheesecake and chocolate cake...oh, and turkey and spuds, etc ;) Zoe didn't partake of much of the food (do crackers count?) but had a BLAST entertaining the crowd. So many people! at her house! FUN!


Playroom supervisor


Pensive Zo


Gourd girl, again

Friday morning, Zoe was gracious enough to let us sleep in a bit, having partied much of the evening away. It was quite gracious of her, giving us enough rest to digest Dave's awesomely yummy breakfast of homemade eggs, biscuits and gravy.

Later (sorry, Dave - much later) Friday, Dave, Zoe and I hit the road for Vancouver to join the Coffield side of Dave's family. Zoe was fantastic. She graced us with a bit of quiet reading and a pretty good nap. I was in the back seat to entertain her for only about an hour (not bad for a nearly four hour car ride!).


Zoe, en route

Once at Grandma and Grandpa's Zoe hit her stride again, catching up quickly with her cousins and Auntie and Uncle and Grandma - not surprising since she'd last seen them that morning!


Zoe touching base with Hannah, hanging with Cameron and meeting with Auntie Tammy

And of course, on Saturday, we were joined by the rest of the Coffield family for the the traditional early Xmas "white elephant gift exchange after T-day dinner, part deux". (Personally I just can't get enough of that kind of food, so I was pleased!)


Overseeing the turkey smoking


Refueling before the festivities


Two peas...


Zoe getting into the action

Sunday, we made a relatively early break for the road and amazingly, bizarrely, fantastically, we didn't hit any traffic until we hit downtown Seattle. That never happens on our drives home from Vancouver. Never. I had SO much gratitude for not having to push Zoe's patience any further. She was a perfect child on the way home (OK, yes, I said that word, but it's true!) happilly reading and sleeping her way home.