The last of the firsts for her!

Thanksgiving 2012 was Addie's official last "first holiday" {besides her birthday, but I think that will technically be her 2nd time right?!} and it was a good one!

Being a nurse, It is expected that you will have to work your fair share of holidays…so I fully intended on working Thanksgiving or Christmas and/ or New Years. Thankfully, I got scheduled for NONE of them! How could that have happened?! I am not sure, but I am not going to complain! Although the double or double and 1/2 time would have been nice, there is nothing that beats holidays with my family.

Back to Thanksgiving… The day started off right with a beautiful run, and non other than my favorite treats: A veggie egg and cheese breakfast sandwich and pumpkin spice latte from my love {Starbucks}. 

Sam, Addie and I then made the 2 1/2 hr trip to New Ulm to Sam's wonderful Grandparents house. They always do such a great job hosting. They are seriously the most active and spunky grandparents I have ever met! It was nice to see all of his aunts, uncles, cousins etc that we don't get to see that often! Believe it or not, some of them had never even met little miss Addison yet! {Last Christmas we didn't brave the trip down there with a 3 week old, and I was scheduled to work on Easter.}

Addie was shy for a while {would we expect anything else?!} but after a couple hours, and a nap, she warmed up to a few people... and especially enjoyed the 50+ year old blocks!

I for one LOVE thanksgiving not for the food {I really don't like 99% of thanksgiving foods} but for the fact that it is a holiday NOT centered around gifts! So it was very nice just to 'be' with others!

On our way home, we stopped by my parents to pick up Mr. Theo, who of course couldn't spend Thanksgiving alone- and plotted the next days early morning shopping.

It was great {of course} to get the majority of our Christmas shopping done, and to get some good deals during our 12 hr shopping day…but so often I just felt sick to my stomach! The focus on spending so much money and all the gifts you 'HAVE' to buy just really got to me! I so wish we could do without gifts on Christmas. Or people would be satisfied with all home crafted gifts! It is nice to get new things for yourself, and to buy for others…but how much do we really need? It says a lot that most of the time we have to sit down, and think hard about what we want for Christmas.

Anyways, It was a super fun day with my mom, and maybe one year {hopefully sooner rather than later} we can start scaling down even more on the gifts, but it is hard because it seems like everyone would have to be on board!

All in all, I am SO thankful, and SO blessed beyond words can describe. I loved this Thanksgiving and look forward to the Birthday and Christmas festivities ahead! We fully intend on soaking up every bit of it! Can you believe my little monkey is going to be ONE year old in just a few days!?! WOW, it is cliche, but so true, time really does fly with the little ones! What a beautiful, sweet, silly, and special girl she is! Her giggles and sweet/ thoughtful spirit melt my heart each and every day!