Thanksgiving & Another Nephew

In the same week, I got two I got two new nephews. I showed you the pictures of little William and this is Nicolas Todd. He is my brother Todd and Paula's 2nd child.

He was born 5 weeks early and weighed only 4lbs 7 oz. I wish I could hold the little guy. He is so tiny.

We had a great Thanksgiving over here. We had our friends Jørgen and Kirstine over. I always get nervous cooking an entire meal for other people, but I think it went much better this year than last. I had things a little more under control. It is great experience for me learning to make everything from scratch and not relying on the conveniences back home. Although I did bring pumpkin back with me my last trip home for the pie. =) But I still used the hokkaidos here to substitute for sweet potatoes and they were really good. Unfortunately when I got my turkey .... my $70 turkey .... it still had some of the feathers in it.

All I can say is YUCK! I don't like to pluck feathers. I don't like to think of the animal being so recently alive. But, it did end up tasting quite good.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. Its a great time with loved ones. Great food. And not the stress of gift buying and so many things to be at and running around. And I love the focus .... to focus on how we are blessed and how fortunate we are. It puts things in perspective and helps to minimize the unimportant things in life.

Jørgen was helping Brad carve the turkey.

Here they are enjoying the meal.

And Anika loved it too. Her first taste of turkey was a successful one. She ate a lot of it ... well, a lot for an 8 month old.

This past week, we had Brad's brother Aaron here for work. He left today and tonight Brad's brother Curt arrived and will be here most of the week for work. Its so nice to have family here for a little while. We just wish the rest of their families could have joined them.