The Smitty Gritty: Thanksgiving 2012

Leading up to Thanksgiving I'd been teaching Cooper about the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims and Indians. I taught him a little song I learned as a child about Thanksgiving, and he would sing it, but only to me, which was a shame. I was hoping he'd sing it for everyone on Thanksgiving, but alas, I couldn't even get him to do it on video. The song is a Janeen Brady song that goes:
The Pilgrims and the Indians had a pow-wow a long time ago.
The Pilgrims and the Indians felt like having a party and so,
The Pilgrims and the Indians cooked a turkey and Indian corn,
Sat down and ate together, and that is how Thanksgiving was born!
It was so cute when he'd sing it. He liked the line about having a party.

They day before Thanksgiving, I Reminded Coop that the next day would be Thanksgiving, and asked, "What's something we might have for our Thanksgiving dinner that the Pilgrims and Indians probably had?" [I was thinking along the lines of turkey or corn, from the song.] He thought for a sec and shouted, "Cool whip!" We later came to find out that Cooper likes pumpkin pie, but really only because it's a cool whip delivery device.

This Thanksgiving we spent in Columbia, SC at the house of Nate's Aunt Denise and Uncle Jim. Not only did we get to enjoy the company of Denise, Jim and their girls Lindsay and Allison, but also some of Nate's family from Boston! Uncle David, Nana and Grandpa Gunning came down for a few days. We were so happy to get to visit and spend the holiday with them.

For some reason, I didn't take ANY pictures of our beautiful Thanksgiving dinner or the beautifully decorated table. What a shame--sorry, Denise! Guess I was so busy helping make some of the food, enjoying eating the food, and visiting with relatives we don't often get to see, that I forgot to take photos for awhile.

However, Thanksgiving Day also happened to be Uncle David's birthday, and the pictures taken reflect the priorities of the day as stated by David: birthday, Thanksgiving, Patriot's game.

Denise honored David with an Avenger's-themed birthday party, so along with the traditional Thanksgiving desserts, we also had cake and ice cream. Cooper donned his Superman shirt and "Super Cooper" cape to celebrate the occasion. Cooper was excited about something in this picture. Not sure if it was blowing out the candles, or the fact that he's about to get some cool whip,or what.

Aunt Denise had this HUGE stuffed bear that Cooper loved to wrestle with.

Coopsta, David, and Nana Gunning

Allison gave David some lottery scratch tickets for his birthday, and Coop got straight to work on scratching to win. The winnings amounted to a whopping $2, I think.

It wasn't long before we were playing games, and Cooper got ahold of the camera. His pictures weren't half -bad, and I decided to post a few of them since he nearly took more than I did that day.

Denise was apparently a little frazzled after hosting a huge Thanksgiving dinner, and playing games with us crazies.

I enjoyed playing games too.

Jim Ed, and Grandpa were watching football all afternoon, and we all watched the Patriots' game that night.

Nate was enthusiastic about Cooper taking his picture.

Super Cooper!!

The Saturday following Thanksgiving, we made our way back to Columbia, SC to spend more time with the family. We took advantage of the hotel pool where Nana, Grandpa, and David were staying. Denise and Nana sat on the sidelines to watch, while Nate, Coop and I enjoyed the water for a bit.