It's that time of year again - the holidays are here! Thanksgiving is one of those holidays that I have taken for granted in year's past - eat good food, spend time with family, do a bit of shopping - but I hadn't put a lot of thought into the true meaning of the day. It usually meant a long road trip squeezed into not enough days off from work. Funny how having a kid keeps you living in the moment so much that you realize how much you have to be thankful for. This year I am overwhelmed with how special life is, and grateful that we have so many wonderful friends and family to share it with. Not to mention the world's most adorable son (so I'm biased, I am his mom:) who keeps us smiling and laughing non-stop.
We are still nervous about disrupting Elliott's sleep schedule on road trips, so we hit the road Tuesday evening after Steve got off work, and rolled in to my parents just before midnight. Although we would have loved to sleep in on Wednesday morning, we have become early risers, so instead we relaxed over a cup of coffee while Elliott read the newspaper with Great Gram.
Over the past few weeks we've been plugging away at designing our new kitchen, and had the brilliant idea to order from the Ikea by my parents' house to save us the 2+ hour drive through LA traffic to get to the Burbank Ikea. Plus the 20% off sale ended on Nov. 27, so we were cutting it pretty close anyway. So not 12 hours after rolling in to my parents' house we loaded back into the car. Here's Elliott ready to help Daddy with the kitchen plans:
I forgot to pack the Moby wrap, which is how I usually carry Elliott while we are shopping, but luckily my Mom had a citienge floating around from when she visited me in Zambia. Here's me carrying him Zam-style through Ikea. Who needs fancy baby gear anyway?
Unfortunately, after getting everything set up to order, we were told that individual Ikea stores contract with local vendors for countertop installation, so we would have to make our purchase from our "local" Ikea in Burbank, and needed to do so before the end of the sale on Sunday Nov. 27th. So that was an unnecessary trip through Oakland traffic, but anytime spent as a family now seems like a special adventure, so I don't view the day as a complete waste. More on our final Ikea adventure in Burbank later.
Thanksgiving day was full of family bonding. Steve's parents came to celebrate with us, along with my sister Janine, and her husband Tim. Elliott took a catnap on Grandma Sandy's lap during cocktail hour while we were putting the finishing touches on dinner.
Thanksgiving dinner was tasty! With everything from Dad's turkey and sausage-cherry stuffing to Janine's sweet potatoes. We contributed salad and a squash/apple dish, all from the local organic veggie box we get delivered weekly. Notice Elliott is swaddled up in my arms - we tried getting him to sleep through dinner, but ended up shuffling him from person to person so everyone got a chance to eat.
What a good looking family! Of course Elliott always steals the show:)
After dinner we relaxed by the fire. Elliott enjoyed playing on my baby blanket, and playing with one of my old toys. He loves fires almost as much as I do.
And of course no day is complete without some playtime with Daddy.
Aunt Janine woke up super early on Friday morning so Steve and I could hit the Black Friday sales. On our agenda were both Home Depot and Lowe's. Yep, we're hard core:)
Friday afternoon we took Elliott on his first wine tasting trip. Well, we tasted, he slept.
During our time in Livermore Elliott really seemed to change overnight. He became super chatty (must have been the influence of the 3 grandmas), and started to grab and play with toys, or at least bring them to his mouth to chew on.
I really expected the grandmas to duke it out over Elliott, but here's proof that they can all play together...
It is amazing how one smile from Elliott can light up a crowd...
Our trip back to Santa Barbara proved to be a long day reminiscent of my days on Zambian transport. We decided to leave Sunday morning after Elliott's 4:00am feeding (we are down to one feeding a night which is awesome!) to avoid traffic and hit Ikea Burbank right as it opened to avoid the "Last Day of the Kitchen Sale" craziness. I'll try to give you the short version of our 15 hour adventure home:
Crazy fog on the 5 meant slow going...
We could barely find the gas station at Harris Ranch in the fog, even though we knew exactly where it was. When we woke Elliott to eat we couldn't get the chatter bug to quiet down enough to get a good meal into him. He made us laugh so hard! Of course he quieted down as soon as we pulled out the camera, but here's a taste of the early morning giddiness we were all feeling...
Ikea Burbank was a zoo, and we were all running out of steam as we waited for the kitchen guy to finish up our order. 3 hours later our new kitchen was ordered and paid for (with a huge 20% off savings!!) and we were on the road again.
A quick pit stop in Newburry Park to stretch our legs and visit Great Grandma Claire and Great Grandpa Harry. I remembered to pull out my camera this time.
And then crazy traffic between Ventura and Santa Barbara. We were so close to home, but at least the moon looked cool:)
And finally we made it home, with a sweet milk coma to end the day:)
Thanks for checking in on us! How was your Thanksgiving?
That baby Elliott is so cute. Cherish every minute with him!
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