Thanksgiving 2010

Every year, I feel like we have more and more to be thankful for...

Thanksgiving 2010 was wonderful. We never get the chance to spend a holiday with both mine and John's family, so it was great that we could all be together to celebrate this year. The feast we enjoyed was the definition of a joint effort--everyone did something and we ended up with one incredible menu:

Shrimp Cocktail
Turkey
Honeybaked Ham
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Stuffing
Cheddar Biscuts
Green Bean Cassarole
Doctored Carrots
Corn
Polish Sausage & Sauerkraut
Hawaian Salad
Mac n Cheese

Mom & I were up at 6 am getting the bird ready for the oven.
Ron helped finish the gravy--I made him put an apron on to protect his clothes and, well, since I was already wearing my red one, there was only one other option! Ha!
He wears pink almost as well as John does :) And the gravy was awesome! Mom picked out a fantastic recipe, as usual.
Kitchen helpers!
Ron & Silvia
Britt & Josh--we were glad he stopped by :)
Mom & I with our girl--all ready to be carved.

We couldn't wait to give her the drumstick. She loved it!




My awesome and delicious plate of food.
Relaxing post-consumption.
Papa & Lola relaxing.
The Zic's came over for dessert and brought 3 bottles of Mascato d'Asti--the were consumed quickly!
This profile of my belly is fantastic--yep, I'm enormous!
Mommy & Me.
Ronnie with Uncle Johnny and Pop Zic.
Johnny & Jessica. We're so proud of our Johnny Zic--graduating ND in the spring with a job waiting for him in Manhattan, yea!
Lola LOVED playing with Uncle Johnny.
Renee worked so hard making tons of cupcakes for today--as usual, they were out of this world. The flavors were carrot with cream cheese frosting and sweet potato with meringue frosting. Mom made an awesome Bailey's cheesecake and I made Williams-Sonoma pumpkin squares. Dessert was just as good as dinner!

Lola bakes!

Since the dynamic baking duo of Nonna & Titi are in town, there was no better time then tonight to start training their future apprentice. Lola had a BLAST making her first batch of spritz cookies. She was a natural and her baking skills most definitely come from John's side of the family!

Making the dough with Nonna.
Taste-testing.
We have a winner.
Time for the Wilton cookie press (already asked my mom to add this to Lola's Christmas list!).
One-Two-Cookie!

She loved pressing the cookies out.

But nothing was more fun than decorating!
Ta-da! Lola's first batch of Spritz.
Godmommy is so proud!

Oh, and just some sprinkles for eating, too.

Nonna's iPhone

We were having fun taking pics at Nonna's Cafe (aka, our kitchen) this morning...

Snuggles with Mommy--modeling her new hat (made with love by me.)
Downing some organic half & half.
Walking around the house in Mommy's heels--a favorite activity.
These were on Nonna's phone from this summer--

Lola's First Manicure

Mommy got a special manicure this morning for family pictures tomorrow so I thought Lola needed one too! We borrowed some Piggy Paint nail polish from Ellyana and played "beauty shop". Lola thought it was the neatest thing--she held her hand so steady for me while I painted and did a good job of not touching anything while they dried. I see many Mommy-Daughter mani/pedis in the future--poor Daddy!

Grandparents & Dance Class

We took Lola to the Saturday session of her dance class this morning so more of her Grandparents could watch her in action. What a lucky girl to have them all come watch--as usual, she put on a show and they had a blast taking it all in!







Group shot--Lola thought Daddy's zipper was much more interesting :)

{pint}

Baby Johnny had his first American pint of Guinness this evening. John and I did a little Christmas shopping, then went to a local pub for dinner. I'm looking forward to many more in the near future--I had a pint every day the first week of Lola's life. In Ireland, doctors encourage women to drink a pint a day, as they believe it aids in the production of milk. Sláinte!