Your first Thanksgiving

Dear Abigail,

Well, you made it through your first Thanksgiving. You were the life of the party, well, that and all the good food we got to eat!! We drove up Thursday morning to Aunt Amy's & Uncle Martin's in Cookville. The Titans played at 11:30, so we had to be there in time to watch it. Uncle Jay-bee and Aunt Steph were already there, and of course all your cousins (Spencer, Harrison & Caroline). (Papa, Jordan and Carly joined us later). Daddy made his famous chili (the chili that won him first place at his work's chili cook-off, that is) for lunch and Aunt Steph brought homemade salsa - YUMMY! You, as always, looked adorable. Your first outfit was your Titans cheerleading uniform, with, of course, a blue bow! Uncle Martin (nor Aunt Amy) are much into football, or sports in general, but they let us crash the media room and watch the game. Of course, U.M. hung lizards on the wall the hole time, but we were still grateful. They even let us bring drinks and food up there!!! You did so good during the game - you even got exhausted so Aunt Steph had to put you down for a nap. During your nap, we starting preparing the turkey and all the fixings. Let's see, your first Thanksgiving meal consisted of sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, corn casserole, mac & cheese, stuffing, Brussels sprouts (gross), roasted potatoes, slaw, ham, and the happiest turkey ever eaten. Your silly Aunt Amy got suckered into buying a William Sonoma turkey that apparently roamed the lands and was fed the best food and massaged daily and all kinds of other crazy things! None the less, it was delicious. So was everything! We all had to write down what we were thankful for and me and daddy both put you. I also put that I was thankful the New Kids on the Block got back together and were on a reunion tour! But you were my first thankful thought! You did excellent during the meal - you sat in my lap the whole time. Uncle Jay-bee kept trying to feed you ham or whatever he could get his hands on. It was all to aggravate me - and it worked :) Everyone held you and fed you and danced with you. Harrison will never admit it, but every time you were in the room he wanted to be right there beside you. He kept holding your hands and patting you if you were a little fussy. And of course, Caroline couldn't get her hands off you!!! That night your Aunt Amy insisted you sleep in her room, and well, we weren't going to argue, especially since you sleep through the night anyway. So you slept in there from 8:30 to 6 when she fed you and you went right back to sleep till 8:45!!!! I think Uncle Martin slipped you some gin!! Breakfast was great - Aunt Steph made biscuits and ham (and pancakes for me and her!) and then we all went for our annual hike at Burgess Falls. We were a little nervous with you and Aunt Steph (since she is 7+ months pregnant with little Ellie), but both you did great. You even fell asleep on the hike back. We all went back to the house where we pulled all the leftovers out and had another big meal then watched a movie together. By the end of the movie, we were all ready to be back home, including you! We gathered our things and headed home, but were very thankful for such a wonderful thanksgiving with our family.