Thanksgiving in London

We went to London Saturday morning via the Euro Star (high speed train).  It is less then 2 hrs on the train; total time door to door, is about 4 hours or so.

My parents were already in London.  Mom arrived at the beginning of the month to help prepare for baby India's arrival.  Dad arrived a week before we did.

We were all so excited to meet baby India.  She was only 8 days old when we got to meet her!

Grace was pretty gentle with her, as a seasoned big sister.

Audrey just wanted to pull her socks off.

India casting a magic spell on Audrey!

 

Aunt Katie and Uncle Terry hosted the perfect Thanksgiving dinner for all of us!  Thank you!

And on our last morning, we tried to get a picture of all the Alley Caspermeyer Rawlings Ladies.  Uh, yah.... good luck with that!

Grandkids!

New Thanksgiving Traditions

Thanks (once again) to our slingbox/tivo host family, we were able to watch the parade.  It started at 4pm our time, and ended at 7pm.  So when Daddy got home from work (not a holiday in Belgium!), we set up to have a picnic to watch the end of the parade.

Our picnic was Sloppy Joes and french fries!  Yum!

Thanksgiving Texas Trip Recap

We traveled to Houston for Thanksgiving this year. We wanted Grace to meet her Great Grandmother and see/meet all of her Texas family, minus of course cousin Missy who was anxiously expecting the birth of her first son, Parker Gregory on 12/1 in Pennsylvania.

We flew out of Atlanta Thanksgiving morning. I was really anxious about security, given all the recent news reports about the amped up security. Don't believe the hype! We didn't experience anything outside of the ordinary, and in some cases they were more lax. On previous trips we've had to have Grace's milk specially screened.....this time, it zoomed right thru the xray machine with no questions asked.

Of course our flight was delayed. Thank you, Delta. But we managed to get to Granny's house with time to spare before the big feast with my Grandmother, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and my brother Don and his family. We had a really wonderful time.

Friday, we took Grace to the Children's Museum with Don, Josh and Megan. The kids had a great time; the adults had a good time, too. It's such a cool place. I can't wait to go to the one here and compare.

On Saturday, we went to Don's house to make Christmas cookies. Not sure Grace really 'got it', but she loved spending time with Megan and Josh.


Excuse Grace's 'thrilled' expression. I think they really do like each other. ;) And the cookie she had before we drove back to Granny's house had her on a sugar high like we've never seen before. I don't think she stopped talking the entire car ride. And it was mostly about Granny's dog, Tammie.

Sunday, we went to church in the morning. Grace did a little showing off and said 'Amen' loudly after the congregation responded in prayer. That got a nice laugh from everyone sitting around us. After church and lunch, we went to the Zoo with Don, Josh and Megan.


Megan is Grace's idol. :)



First Merry Go Round ride.

Monday we spent time with Granny and Tammie. Grace and Tammie didn't start off on the right foot, but by the end of the trip, were fast friends.



We were back to Atlanta on Tuesday. Again, zero issues with security. Just ANOTHER delayed Delta flight. By the time we got home Tuesday night, we had been traveling for almost 10 hours. It was a long day. But we had a really great time in Texas and it was worth it.

Grace's First Thanksgiving

We celebrated Grace's first Thanksgiving with Granny and Grandpa Alley. It was just the 4.5 of us, so we didn't really overdo the food too much. In fact, we are already completely done with leftovers!

Grace enjoyed everything! Before dinner she snacked with the rest of us on carrots and celery....


...and then dined with us for the main course of Turkey, Dressing, Cranberries, Sweet Potatoes, and Green Beans.
Recipes (with pictures) to be posted over on The Georgia Caspermeyer's Cook blog!

Sadly, I didn't get very many pictures from the weekend. Ok, actually NONE, other then the ones above. But Grace had the best time with her grandparents and her dog Beauregard. Beau is a chocolate lab and is about 2 weeks younger then Grace. Notice how he's referred to as HER dog, although he LIVES in Florida, thankfully. She loved him and we think she was actually saying dog all weekend. It was "dug dug" sound with a very hard vowel. A very different word then her constant chatter of "da da da da da". She loves her Da-Da.

We went to the Christmas festival at Stone Mountain and enjoyed several shows and braved the chilly air. Wait till you see Grace's hat. Too much cuteness for this post, so stay tuned. We also went to a short 4-D movie of the Polar Express. It's one of those things where they spray you with water, jiggle your seat, and blow air on you while you watch the movie in 3D. Grace was mesmerized.

We had a great weekend! And exhausting. Grace took 2 hour and a half naps yesterday and was a bear to wake up this morning for school. Much like the rest of us.