The giving of thanks

We had a nice Thanksgiving this year. Last year was our first Thanksgiving in Arizona and we were here with our little family all alone since I was too prego to travel (refer to horribly embarrassing picture below). So we spent Thanksgiving last year at the zoo before indulging in a meal covered in gravy. We decided that would become our new family tradition and it's a great one!

Thanksgiving 2007 Emily, Tysen, unborn Audrey, and zebras

We went to the zoo on Thursday morning and there was this mysterious liquid substance falling from the sky. We only see this phenomenon a few times each year so it's a little bit of a novelty each time it happens. When we got to the zoo it was just stopping. By the time we had been there about 20 minutes the clouds broke and there was no rain the rest of the day. It was BEAUTIFUL!!!

Our human GPS system (aka Tysen) enjoyed holding the map and telling us which way we needed to go to see the next exhibit more than he liked seeing the animals themselves. He did enjoy petting the shark and stingrays though and he was anxious to see the jaguar for some reason. He liked brushing the goats in the petting zoo and walking with the wallabies and having the monkeys scamper right in front of him in the monkey village. He had a great time.

It was Audrey's first trip to the zoo and like the great mother that I am, I forgot to bring my camera. Luckily for me (I think) she could not have cared less about any of it and was just happy to ride around in her stroller for 3 hours and eat crackers. She such an easygoing child, it amazes me. The only real reaction she had to anything was to the goats in the petting zoo. Toby put her right up next to one of the goats and she just looked at it disgustedly and looked back at Toby. He tried to put her hand on it and she yelled at him. She wasn't scared, she just didn't want any part of it. Children develop their own personalities so early in life.

My other child (Toby) was as happy as a clam. He acts like a kid every time we go to the zoo. He LOVES the zoo. It's so funny. He also enjoyed the shark and stingrays. It's not a trip to the zoo unless Toby gets to see EVERY animal there and he did. He especially likes the orangutans and they have a baby one here which is about the most adorable thing you've ever seen. We saw it last year too. and I got a pretty cute photo of the little guy.
After the zoo, we ran home and finished up the stuffing, sweet potatoes, and green bean casserole. We took all the hot food and the pies I made the day before over to Kenlynne's house and had a fantastic smoked turkey dinner. We, as is the tradition, ate too much and then each person got to participate in their pastime of choice, napping, playing games, or watching football. It was such a nice, relaxing day and wonderful to spend the whole day with my hubby and kids. Those days can be hard to come by so I was grateful to have it!

We had adequately respected "the bird" so we put our Christmas tree up on Friday. We went with silver and red this year. We have a funky red star that is kinda tacky but I love it! We have a staircase banister you can see from our living room where we draped pine-esque garland and hung the stockings. We put up the outside lights on Saturday and I'm happy to announce no one died in the process. It was touch and go for a while there. The only casualty was one of our roof tiles.

I'm so proud of how festive our house looks! It was so much fun decorating a new house this year! It's actually the first time we've ever put up outside lights. I would post pictures, but our little camera that could is going the way of the earth after serving us well for 6 long years. Santa is having a new one delivered via UPS in 7-9 business days, though so I'll take some pics then. Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving!