Thanksgiving 2009

As many of you know, Thanksgiving season for us is especially busy because it is also the season for Dad and Jared's shared birthday. So, brace yourself for a bit of a marathon entry . . .

It all started out with our grand little feast . . .

We decided to be a bit daring this year and have duck, along with a turkey breast, just to maintain some semblance of tradition. Dad is carving the duck in the picture above, and Jared is munching on duck wing in the picture below.

And don't think we forgot about Curtis; here he is enjoying the first course of his first Thanksgiving dinner, peas.

Curtis did munch some mashed potatoes and stuffing as well (he is seven months old after all), but we decided to forgo the messier photos. About the duck, it provided LOTS of drippings for some incredibly rich gravy, and Amanda loved it. Great bird if you like dark meat. Mom was glad there was some turkey available, too, though, as she is more of a white meat person.

And then it was birthday time . . .

Yes, it was Jared's 2nd birthday, not his first, but Jared decided that if Dad gets to stop aging then he can, too. Either that or we forgot to buy birthday candles in the midst of the holiday . . . At any rate, he loved the chocolate creme pie. We had some friends over for a pie party to celebrate the joint birthday.

Here's Jared with some presents. He absolutely loved unwrapping them (lucky for him that Christmas is coming soon), and he even enjoyed the actual presents, too. The turtle is from Grandma and Grandpa and Buzz (a soft, silent version) is from Mom & Dad. Jared's favorite game to play with Buzz is to hold him upside down, say "Buzz!" and then buzz Buzz's feet. His play with the turtle is a little more conventional.

You may have noticed Jared's abundant hair in the previous pictures. The last noteworthy event of the weekend was a haircut by Dad. As you can see, Jared was not too happy about it, even with the chocolate pie to pacify him. The hair cut turned out well, though, as will hopefully be seen in later posts.

Meanwhile, Curtis was in quite the opposite mood, happy as can be. That and he loves getting his picture taken. (Seriously, he does; wonder how long that will last . . .)


We had a great Thanksgiving weekend and were glad for the friends we got to visit and for the birthday wishes received. Thanks again!