Best EVER!

This is what Alyssa said all through our Thanksgiving dinner....I couldn't have agreed more..... BEST EVER!
Drinking her first annual super yummy, most favoritist orange drink that Papa makes that you can't take just one sip of. Whew!

Halting in play to watch the Macy's parade... Look ma, you finally got your girl who will sit and watch this with you. and not pretend to like it just so she can sit with you and feel cool

It's funny, when you are a kid you see the holidays as only a child could.  The lights, the music, the smells and the food just happen and forms this enchanting bubble of warm fuzzies.  You see family and everything is fun and exciting and full of promise.


  
As an adult you start to see the effort that goes into the magic.  The hours of cooking prep, the trip to the store to make sure you have candles that will aid in the "smells of the season", the cleaning and of course the decorating.....and maybe a little of this...

Cliff and my dad always get a few beers that they have never tried before and we do a "tasting".  With wine it is so dignified and refined.  With beer it is a bit more red neck but no less fun.  ;) 

It sounds like it is all work as the adult but there is still something so magical about the holidays.  Now THOSE things are my cues that something exciting is about to happen.  Getting to learn how to make my very favorite meal of all time from the one person who knows how to make it exactly how I like it is priceless.  I have been training to do this on my own since I was born.  "Helped" in the kitchen as a child, actually helped a bit as a teenager and now actually helping in a "things are getting done" kind of way.  I am overly aware that this job will be handed to me sooner than I would like (I would prefer never if that puts it into perspective haha) and just feel so incredibly thankful that I still get to learn instead of fly solo.  This is my favorite part of Thanksgiving now....maybe it always was.

 

The arrival of family, the traditions that are now work to me BUT fun for my own children.  I LOVE watching them enjoy the same things that I used to.  There is just something so awesome about being able to  watch my parents reliving my childhood through my children's eyes.  A silent look passed that I am sure happened when I was little but that I never saw, a proud smile passed between Cliff and I that is mirrored in my parents. To see traditions stick onto the next generation like a brain tattoo....priceless I tell you!

 


Making stuffing is the first right of passage in our family.  It is the very first thing that you can help cook as a child and dang it, it is FUN!  Children instinctively know to eat the bread as you make the stuffing, to play with the egg when you put it in.  Ok, ok, maybe that's just me.  I kind of had to help Alyssa appreciate that this year hahaha  Whatever kid, more for me to play in!

Only a couple of egg shells this year.  It's part of the "character" of the stuffing....and part of teaching a 2.5 year old how to crack an egg independently.  haha (We are not responsible for your dental bills after the meal.) 

I love Thanksgiving because you obviously couldn't 
 figure that out on your own.  It has nothing and everything to do with the meal.  It is in the long hours of chatting and laughing in the kitchen.  It is in the excited faces of my girls as they begin this journey of learning what this holiday is really all about. It is sitting at the big kid table eating olives off of your fingers (naked because they both decided to strip right before dinner...and who am I do tell them that naked eating is inappropriate on this oh so awesome holiday)





It is heavy lids at the end of the meal as we all cuddle in for the evening.  It is being thankful for everything that many others seem to take for granted.  It is that feeling as you lay in bed that can only come from a day like this.  I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  

Will you leave me a comment and tell me what your favorite Thanksgiving tradition is?  I am always looking for more fun things to add into our season.