Finally!

For many weeks we prayed that we'd be healthy enough to celebrate Grandma's birthday with her. She turned 69 on November 7. None of us saw her during the month of November. We then were praying that we would all be able to get together on Thanksgiving Day. It didn't happen on that actual date as she was still in the hospital that morning, but yesterday Paul's parents, brother, and sister-in-law came over to our house for a turkey dinner. We were finally able to give Grandma her birthday gifts and cards. Oliver is usually a Daddy's boy, but the only person he wanted yesterday was Grandma. He kept handing the book with the song "The Wheels on the bus" to her. Grandma sang that song umpteen times yesterday. We're hoping she can stay out of the hospital for as long as possible so we don't have to go so long in between visits! They are planning to come up in 12 days for Ian's birthday party, and we're planning to go to their house on Christmas morning. Millie brought many delicious desserts. The kids ate their chocolate covered pretzels yesterday, and Nadia had some apple pie. Today they had some of her cookies. Oliver and I shared a slice of pumpkin pie this evening.

Although I'm not a big turkey fan, I love stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, etc. Nadia loves jellied cranberry and will eat turkey without any fuss. It was a struggle to get her to eat anything else aside from the deviled eggs that Grandma brought. Ian loves the stuffing and will eat some turkey with positive reinforcement (ex. offering him one goldfish cracker after every two bites of turkey). Neither child ate any mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes. Oliver usually will eat anything (except for bananas), but he also refused to eat any stuffing. Aside from the yummy desserts, my kids are not fans of Thanksgiving dinner. Hopefully in time that will change.