These pictures are actually from Abby and Mike's wedding back in October, but I was just looking through some of our old pictures and ran across these.  I thought Eliana's mohawk hair was too cute not to share.

I didn't really take any pictures over Thanksgiving otherwise I would post some for you.  My picture taking has declined greatly as Eliana is getting older.  I used to take about twenty of her a day, just sitting in her bouncy seat or smiling at me.  Now I don't even take that many in a week.  That's probably a bad sign for any future children we have. 

We had several celebrations for Thanksgiving.  It started out with my sister Abby coming to visit the weekend before Thanksgiving.  Mike was out hunting so she decided to spend the weekend with us instead.  We had a mini Thanksgiving feast with my brother Michael and his fiance Melissa, Abby, and the three of us.  I have hosted a meal like this once before, but I didn't make the turkey.  So this was the first time I made all of Thanksgiving - from turkey to pumpkin pie.  I think things went pretty well after a small hitch to start out with.  Abby brought us a frozen turkey that she was giving at work.  I had read my cookbook on making a turkey and planned on just thawing it in cold water.  That shouldn't take too long, right?  Wrong!  Somehow I misread the directions and thought it took 30 minutes to thaw a turkey.  It actually takes 30 minutes PER POUND!  So a 13lb turkey is now going to take me about 6 hours to thaw instead of 30 minutes.  I hopped on the internet and felt a little reassured when I read this from TLC Cooking: "Each year, thousands of Americans attempt to cook their first Thanksgiving turkey. These same people quickly realize it takes a heck of a lot more work to thaw out a frozen turkey than they might have initially planned."  Luckily that website also told me that you can thaw a turkey pretty darn quick in your microwave if it is big enough. 
Into the microwave our turkey went, and an hour and a half later, the bird was ready to cook!  I might have had a little panic right there at the end of the meal prep when everything was finishing up at the same time.  However my family quickly came to the rescue and helped me put everything on the table.  For my first time completely making the meal, I'd say it went pretty well.  Plus we all had fun just hanging out.  It was so nice having my sister come to visit. 

Originally on Thanksgiving David was supposed to work, but one of the interns he is working with offered to trade him days.  So David actually had the day off.  We made a quick trip to Indianapolis to spend the day with his family.  We had a great time seeing everyone and getting to spend a little time relaxing.  Eliana played on the swing set and jungle gym in the park behind David's parents house.  She laughed so much when her Aunt Rhonda and I pretended that she was  knocking into us from the swing.  David's dad always makes the best turkey so we enjoyed a delicious meal.  Then back to Columbus we came.  It was an unexpected day off and a wonderful blessing to get to spend it with those we love. 

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday too.  Happy Thanksgiving!