Two Family Thanksgivings, One Thanksgiving Day

Yesterday, we packed our little selves up after Felix's morning nap and headed to my parents' house, about 45 minutes away, for Thanksgiving, Part I. My brother and family are visiting from Pennsylvania, and I wanted some time with my niece and nephew before 2pm dinner. Mom managed to get all the kids and grandkids in one shot, but, as you can see, we're not all looking stellar... Maybe we can get our act together next May when we're all in Florida?

After dinner, complete with crepe paper crowns and noisemakers, we packed up again and headed south to Mark's parents' house in Rhode Island for Thanksgiving, Part Deux. In a rare show of youthful vigor, both Felix's Great Grandma and Grandmemere (his great grandmothers on Mark's side) were in attendance and feeling good, as was Mark's great Aunt, Matante Del (for those of you like the nuances of dialect, matante is the Woonsocket French Canadien direct address word for Aunt, from the French Ma Tante/my aunt, but it's pronounced muh-tount, rhyming with account), who at 90 still drives a big old hunk of American steel around town to do her shopping and borrow trashy romances from the library. She has no grandchildren, so I've kind of adopted her as my grandmother.

Felix played with his cousins, ate two big family meals, harrassed my parents' dogs, got birthday presents from his uncles (which kept him busy when he started to run out of steam), took a swim in Memere's new bathtub, and rode halfway home before falling asleep, which meant he didn't get to sleep until 10 last night. The result of that? One cranky little boy. The best two hours we got out of today we spent getting sushi for lunch. Felix went to town on an avo maki, after having eaten most of an order of edamame, some miso soup, and a few pieces of my seaweed salad. Other than that, today we paid for his wonderful behavior yesterday. Getting him to bed on time tonight will certainly be something to be thankful for!