Thanksgiving and the beginning of Christmas

We hosted Thanksgiving at our place. There were a few of us who weren't able to travel home for the holiday, so we invited people over. Here is our dining room - ready for a feast!This was my first time roasting a turkey - EVER! I was so nervous about it, but it turned out great - golden brown and very tender. What a relief!

Here's a closer look at our bird.

City Hall, the police department, and our local library are all down the street from where we live and they are located in an area called Payrow Plaza. Each year at sunset, on the day after Thanksgiving, there is a tree lighting ceremony for the whole town. It's really a fun event. They provide cookies and hot chocolate, we sing Christmas songs and countdown to the lighting of the tree. We had a great time.

Isabella really liked the lights.

Here is the main tree. It's not a great picture, but it is a huge tree. The darker blobs at the bottom of the picture are people - that's to give you perspective on the size of the tree.

Isabella has been trying to learn how to open doors. Thankfully, she hasn't figured it out yet.

She is playing peek-a-boo with herself in this picture.

Our little elf - eager to sort through the boxes of Christmas decorations.

It turned out kind of blurry, but I still think this is a cool picture. I've seen similar photos online and thought I'd give it a try. Isabella had fun playing with the lights.

Here's our tree - all decorated.

The next morning: Isabella is already getting into the ornaments. We only put a few on the bottom and they are all child-friendly ornaments.

Andy's updated list: Her was able to check a few things off. Unfortunately, the list grew longer this past week. Still, he is definitely making progress. Less than three weeks now. . .
On Tuesday, Isabella let go of us for the first time and stood by herself for a few seconds. She did it a couple of times in a row, but hasn't done it since. She sure is growing up. Her birthday is in four days. What a big girl! She is also getting into more and more stuff. Recently, it has been the phone. Somehow, she turned the ringer off of the phone and she deleted our answering machine message. We didn't realize this right away, so we apologize if anyone was trying to get a hold of us over the weekend. I guess we need to find a new place for the phone, the only problem is that this is the only phone jack in the whole apartment. We'll try to figure something out.