A Thanksgiving with the Nelsons (and other stories)!

What a fun Thanksgiving! Gramma Camra (Pam, Andrew's Mom), Uncle Eric (Rowan's middle-namesake), and Aunt Colleen (who Ingrid still asks for...) came to spend a long weekend with us here in McHenry. It was a laid-back weekend, and we had some nice times with Ingrid climbing all over everyone, playing "match game" with Gramma Camra, and Rowan sleeping on people.

They arrived on Wednesday night after fighting the holiday traffic from Dulles airport all the way here. They mustered up enough energy to hang out with us for a while before retiring at the Wisp resort hotel just across the lake from us.

The next day was Thanksgiving, and I made maple-glazed turkey and stuffing and we had a great relaxing day and dinner at our little community building above our house that evening. We had sooooooooo much food!! It was also our nephew, Micah's, birthday, so it doubled as a birthday party. My mom was in China on a trip she'd always wanted to take, so we missed her, but we had fun. The leftovers have been fabulous, too!!

The next day, "Black Friday," Gramma Camra, Ingrid, Rowan, and I bundled up and drove to Morgantown for some pre-Christmas shopping while Andrew took Eric and Colleen fishing in our FREEZING rivers. We found some GREAT deals on kids' clothing (while the fisher"men" only caught one fish in several hours of fishing), and Ingrid found a few other things she "needed" like a Mickey Mouse that sings the same song over and over... and a CandyLand game that she only likes to play by her rules... :) The kids were sooooooo good that day, and Ingrid even wanted to continue shopping after going to the mall, lunch, and Target, even though her eyes kept going closed as she began to lean sideways in the shopping cart seat. It was a great day with Pam. I was even on the receiving end of her generosity, getting the first new clothes I've gotten since she last bought me clothes this past winter when I first found out I was pregnant! Thanks, Gramma Camra...from ALL of us...

That night, we slid over to the Wisp to go swimming (well, I just sat in the hot tub...) at the pool there. Ingrid had so much fun with Aunt Colleen because Aunt Colleen used to teach swimming lessons. Ingrid even put her face in the water and blew bubbles! She couldn't get enough of jumping into the pool to Aunt Colleen and kicking her feet to "swim like a mermaid." Thanks, Colleen. It's actually helped with bathtime and washing her hair and face.

The next day, Andrew, Ingrid, Rowan and I went to Kindermusik in the morning, and we all met up for Thanksgiving leftover lunch. We hung out until we went to dinner/music at a new bistro down the road from us. We had fun and Gramma Camra and Ingrid danced to the music after we ate a great meal. Then, we went to the hotel and played games and laughed as we watched The Family Man on TV. The kids and I went home that night while Andrew spent the night and got up early to take his brother fishing again. This time, Eric caught the fish, and he didn't have to go home feeling empty... :) We met up for lunch at a southwest restaurant in the area before we had to say goodbye.

It was fun to see them with Rowan (he's such a sweet, happy baby, and found Gramma Camra very comfortable to sleep on), and seemed quite happy to have Eric and Colleen hold him. And it was amazing to see Ingrid with them. She might look a bit like me, but she's 90% Nelson/Hawthorne. It was like her energy (that seems so surprising to my family) was like a matching puzzle piece among Andrew's family. She seems to feel it, too, I think. Thanks, Nelsons, for giving my family her wonderful energy. We all (the Wotrings) feel like she's brought something to us that balance us out. It's crazy to think that my legacy will be felt 2+ generations down! It really makes you feel small...and makes you feel the responsibility of having a child. What a wonderful mystery!

I also have an update on the kids... Rowan ended up with thrush in his mouth (which caused me some problems, too...), so we had to go to the doctor and get him some nasty medicine. But while we were at the doctor, they weighed him again and he was 13 lbs, 4 oz! That was last Friday, so he's probably bigger now (he woke up from his nap yesterday and looked bigger to me...), but those are the latest official stats on him. Oh, and the thrush seems to be gone now.

Ingrid is becoming a regular pro at talking on the phone. Yesterday, she talked to everyone at the farm on the phone, asking Elijah how his tummy felt today ("How's your tummy? Feel better? Let me talk to Julia.") and making small talk with everyone about what we were doing here. Here's a little clip from the conversation. Here are the subtitles: "How's Julia? Yeah. She's great. That's just great. How's Anita? Yeah." She's funny. I'm sure that the next time I'm on the phone with you and she's around, she'll want to talk. Good luck getting it all without subtitles. :)