Thanksgiving signifies two things in our family. The first is giving thanks for all of the blessings we have had through the past year by stuffing ourselves full of delicious food, and the other is the beginning of the Christmas season.
This year there are many things to be thankful for. We are thankful for Eric finding a new job, for making it through our first pregnancy without me losing my marbles, and for our friends and family. But, the thing that we are the most thankful for is our healthy baby boy. He is such a beautiful gift and brings so much joy to our lives. Having him is not always easy, but many of the things that are best in life aren’t.
Another blessing is that we were able to celebrate our first Thanksgiving with Edmund with the Grashorn family. Staying with Eric’s mom and dad and the many siblings is always an adventure. Ten people under the same roof can lead to things being loud and sometimes crazy. When everyone is getting along, it can also be extremely fun.
We packed up all of our gear into Eric’s Bonneville and made the 4 hour trek to northern Indiana. Traveling with a baby is a bit more challenging, but Teddy has done very well with the car trips we have taken him on so far. There has been minimal fussing and a lot of sleeping, which we are thankful for. I’ve heard that when babies become mobile, it can be a lot harder, but we will cross that bridge when we get there.
There are a lot of great traditions in the Grashorn family that we have over the Thanksgiving holiday.
#1. The first is the cooking, which is mainly taken care of by Eric. He plans the menu weeks ahead of time, browsing different recipes and finalizing what type of turkey and stuffing he is going to make each year. He has some help from the rest of us on the other items such as the cranberry sauce, potatoes, and rolls.
#2. The second is after Thanksgiving, we are only allowed to watch Christmas movies. This means that the rest of the weekend is spent watching The Muppet Christmas Carol, The Polar Express, Miracle on 34th Street, and Elf in the evenings.
#3. The third is the day after Thanksgiving, we go and cut down the family Christmas Tree.
#4. The fourth is we take a family Christmas picture together for the Grashorn Christmas card, although it might be cancelled in the future due to lack of cooperation.
#5. The fifth is that Thanksgiving dinner takes place at the Grashorn house, which includes both the Grashorn and Gregor sides.
Most of Jeannie’s siblings and their children came to Thanksgiving this year. It was a riot! I am not sure what Teddy thought of it as it was much more noise than he is used to. He got to meet his great aunts and uncles and cuddle with lots of different people. I think he was a bit overstimulated as he spent much of the evening sleeping.
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| sleeping with mommy |
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| edmund sleeping with lauren |
Eric’s long-time friend Randy and his wife Elizabeth stopped by in the evening with their daughter Mary Kate. It was great having them meet Teddy and it was nice seeing MK again since we hadn’t seen her since Easter. She is such a cutie pie and such a little chunker that my arms were sore after picking her up. I think I am going to have to work on my mommy arms with some bicep curls.
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| the styles and grashorns |
The day after Thanksgiving we went and got the Christmas tree. We went to Butler Tree Farm up in Michigan
where they do a great job pruning their trees. Both the Grashorn family and our family got Douglas firs after many loops around the lot and much debating about the best tree. We strapped ours to our car and brought it all the way back to Ohio with us.
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| sleepy little bear |
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| the cousins |
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| our christmas tree |
The long weekend went by quick, but by the end of it, Teddy was way off of his schedule and I was exhausted from too many late nights and early mornings. It is always an adventure at the Grashorn house with all the people living under the same roof, topped off by the addition of us three. We are blessed to have such a great big family.
We are looking forward to the Christmas season and spending more time with family on both the Grashorn and Plantenberg sides.
-Eric and Anna
