Turkey, Pacis, Lights, and Noise

Our family was on an argyle kick this Thanksgiving, apparently :0)

I told you about Kate's late-night escapades during the first part of our Thanksgiving trip. Here's the rest of our Thanksgiving visit. 

We took Kate to the playground Thanksgiving afternoon (after watching the Macy's parade in the morning, of course!) and she fell asleep in the car on the way home. So, not wanting to risk waking her by carrying her inside, Dad stayed in the car with her and took a nap as well while Matt and I came inside to change our clothes and get Claire dressed for dinner. Kate definitely did not want to wake up to get dressed herself, and I spent cocktail hour pinned to the couch by my still-sleeping girl...

It was just my parents, aunt and uncle, and us for dinner, so not a big crowd, but it was nonetheless lovely and the food was delicious! Our traditional meal is turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, corn pudding, peas and carrots, cranberry sauce, and rolls. What's yours?

After dinner, Kate read the Target toy catalog with Uncle Paul, and the Charlie Brown Christmas e-book on Aunt Liz' Nook. Kate sometimes takes a while to warm up to people she doesn't know very well, so it was a delight to see her enjoy playing with her great aunt and great uncle so much!

And Claire just took a nice snooze with a paci Sister reluctantly let her have. (The Paci Fairy has made several stealth visits to make pacis disappear since "she doesn't like to see big girls using pacis." Claire will just have to deal with only having them while Kate's in bed or at school.)

Friday night, we went to Light Up Louisville downtown, which was great because we didn't have to stand around outside (though it was actually very nice weather!) since Dad's office overlooks the plaza where the event was happening. Kate thought the music and announcements were too loud, so it was especially good that we had an indoor retreat. We visited the kids area and looked at the trees in Metro Hall—Kate liked the "peace" tree best.

Then we watched the parade from the balcony of Old City Hall, where Dad's office is. Kate asked to go inside because of the noise. She's still talking about how loud it was!

We then went to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory and walked back to the plaza just in time to see the big "light-up" of the city's Christmas lights. A great way to ring in the Christmas season as a family!