Thanksgiving Weekend 2009!

We had a really great Thanksgiving and enjoyed the l-o-n-g weekend! Our weekend started on Wednesday night with the arrival of Liv. We transformed the mudroom into a make-shift playroom for her so that she could have a place to play without having to climb up and down on the stools at the kitchen counter all the time. Check-out the cupcake flag hanging over the back door for Debbie's shop!

On Wednesday night, we all sat at the kitchen counter and had some wine, cheese and fresh fruit. Liv learned very quickly how to get the Lazy Susan to spin so that the goldfish crackers and goat cheese were right at her fingertips!

While we were enjoying the snacks, Neal was busy making the pizza!

Drew was on call this weekend. And doesn't it figure that a problem came up and he had to log on and fix it. He does a great job. It was really great to have him here with us even if he had to keep his eye on things back at the office.

 

Andrea and Debbie enjoyed relaxing and having some sibling time together.

Happy Thanksgiving La Famiglia! (minus Liv who was sleeping)

We had planned to be on the road to the Cape between 8:00 and 9:00 on Thanksgiving morning to avoid heavy traffic. But Liv ended up sleeping later than we had expected. But that was just fine. We loaded up the car with our most precious cargo and headed off around 9:30 am.

Debbie was all set with the panoramic view from the back.

On the way, Liv got to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to her Nana Kathy!

Are we there yet?

Not quite - but we're close. Though we left later than we had planned, the traffic was very light.

Even as we went over the Sagamore Bridge there wasn't too much traffic.

No boats on the canal on Thanksgiving Day. I remember sailing through the Cape Cod Canal - it's a wonderful passage.

We're almost there now....

And not a minute too soon. Here is Mommy doing what Mommy's do - trying to control those last few minutes of a long car ride until you make it over the finish line. I think Debbie was liking the "One Fish, Two Fish" story, too!

When we arrived at the Cape, the table was all set. It looked truely festive and beautiful.

We all settled in to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and have some snacks!

Liv preferred the VIP seat with her Aunty Debbie

But Liv didn't sit still too long so Debbie and Grampa got to watch a little of the parade together.

Neal relaxed a bit after the drive down.

While we were all enjoying the parade and visiting together, Gramma was busy cooking the turkey. It looked perfect!! And checkout those stuffed mushrooms on the top of the stove. They were delicious!

Dorothy & Gramma had made the ravioli. When it was time to eat, Dorothy & Neal got them ready to serve.

Nonno let Liv inspect the ravioli - and she said they were perfect!

Daddy tried to keep Liv from eating too many snacks before dinner. He remembered the last Thanksgiving and knew all the really good food that was coming. But Liv really liked those crackers and cheese. "Please Daddy, can't I have just one more?"

Dinner is served! And what a fabulous Thanksgiving Day feast it was. Thank you Bernice and Frank for a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!!!

After Thanksgiving, Liv was spending a few days with Nonno and Nonna! On Friday morning, we got up and had breakfast together. Nonno had his coffee (Nonna did too but she's taking the picture!)

Mr. Saks was there.

And our little "Wreck of the Hesperus".

Liv and Mr. Saks hung around together after breakfast.

Then I had to do my chores. It's always great to have the Liv around. She always wants to help...

After we had finished our chores, Neal and I thought it would be great fun to decorate the Christmas tree with Olivia this year. Because a lot of our ornaments are glass, we went to Home Depot and got some shatter-proof decorations that Liv could put up by herself. I'm not sure who had more fun - Nonno or Liv.

Liv was so surprised that our Christmas tree came out of a box!

Mmmm, these tree needles don't feel like I remember and they don't have that fresh pine scent?

Nonno and Nonna's tree comes with the lights attached??  My, oh my!!

But none of that matters because it's time to decorate!!! Liv took the decorations out of the box and Nonno put the hooks on.

And then Liv got to hang each one on the tree all by herself!

She took her job very seriously.

And she did a great job finding a spot for each one on the tree.

It was a lot of hard work for a little girl like Liv.

Here we have a totally spontaneous, unprompted dance!

At some points, Nonno had a tough time keepin' up with Liv and getting all the hooks on. But he hung in there!

Nonna got to help a little bit.

While Liv enjoyed decorating the bottom of the tree, she loved it when Nonno helped her put some on the top of the tree. She thought that was great!!!

I tried to help more with some of the decorating but there was no sharin' going on here. When Liv got wind of what I was doing, she started to hoard the decorations!

I have to tell you, it seemed like that box of decorations we bought was bottomless - it kept going and going and going. When we picked it up I thought it had 26 ornaments. Guess it's time to see Al for some new glasses!

When all the decorations were finally on the tree, it looked great!

Liv sat back in her favorite chair and admired her work.

And of course no really special event is complete without a little singing and dancing with Nonno!

Later Friday afternoon, after we finished up with the tree, we headed over to the Stone Zoo. They had put up their Christmas lights and we thought Liv might enjoy seeing them. Stone Zoo did a nice job!

It wasn't too crowded at all so Liv got to get up close and spend as much time as she wanted looking at each exhibit. She liked the house where the little bears lived.

We stopped and looked at the lights on each tree. She loved to get up close and she told us the color of each light!

She really enjoyed looking at each individual exhibit.

And she really like this skiing bear! I think she took a few notes for ski weekend this year!

She couldn't get enough to this one. It was a little girl whose head popped out of the pail, then went back in, then popped out again. She kept going back to look at this one.

She really like the see-saw, too!

But the big, blow-up Santa was her very favorite. We weren't sure why - maybe because he was so big, or maybe because he was so red? Whatever the reason, she loved this one.

And she also loved this big teddy bear. (Sorry I cut off his head.) You'll have to take my word for the fact that he was a cute bear!

After the Stone Zoo, we decided to stop by Gaetano's on the way home to get something for dinner. It had been a long day so we weren't sure how she'd make out in the restaurant. But she was great! For dessert, Aunty Dorothy gave her some ice cream and Stephan gave her an ice cream sandwich. She ate them all.

When we got back home, Nonno and Liv "did the shades". Nonno and Liv have a routine each  morning and each evening. They walk around the house together and raise or lower the shades - Liv tells him which one do  next. She loves to do this - and so does her Nonno! On this night, they started in the kitchen...

Then into the dining room...

Then over to the bay windows....

Liv was reallly good with Nonno and Nonna over the long weekend. She called for Mommy and Daddy a little bit but not too much. She's really a good little girl. But on Saturday morning when the phone rang during breakfast, her face lit up when she answered it. It was Mommy!! All was right with the world.

After eating her breakfast and talking to Mommy on the phone, Liv thought it would be good to eat Nonna's breakfast, too, since she could use a big girl fork.

While Nonna cleaned up the kitchen, Liv and Nonna took the bike out for a ride. They went all the way to the dead end.

And like all good things, our weekend with Liv was starting to come to come to an end. We headed back up the NH and stopped at Debbie's shop on the way.

Debbie had made up some beautiful boxes with pink bows that were for a special order.

One reason we stopped at Debbie's shop is because Neal got her a cupcake flag for the outside of her shop and he wanted to install it the pole and put the flag up for her.

Although it was really windy on Saturday, the flag looked great and you can now see where her shop is when you look down Ladd Street!

 

After finishing up at Debbie's shop, it was off to Liv's house so she could see Mommy and Daddy. Of course what would  a trip to Aunty Debbie's shop be without sampling the goods!

 

On Saturday night, Neal and I had tickets to see Linda Eder. She was performing in Boston. So, after we dropped Liv at her house, we went home, got changed, and heading into the Boston. The city looked great and was all dressed up for Christmas. We walked down Newbury Street.

Then onto Boylston Street.

The concert was at the Berklee Performance Center on Mass. Ave. We had never seen a performance here. As you might imagine, it was a fantastic place to listen to music.

If you remember, Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend was a beautiful day. Neal took the opportunity to clean the leaves out of the gutters.

As he always does, he did it with that smile!

 

 It didn't take him too long to do the gutters (easy for me to say). So when he was finished, we decided to finish up what had been a wonderful weekend with a nice, long ride the Triumph!

Although the temperature we cool, we put on our hats and zipped up our jackets and headed off!

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend! Looking forward to a nice holiday season! Merry Christmas to you all!