Thanksgiving

This week was great! On Monday we took family/Christmas photos. Avery wore a cute red dress with white shoes and a white sparkly head band - she looked beautiful. Steven wore a nice argyle sweater and I wore the dress I had bought over the weekend. Avery refused to nap that day and was a bit of a grump for photos. She didn't want the photographer anywhere near her. After family photos Steven changed into his Christmas sweater - it green with a buck wearing an eye patch and a mustache, he loves it. The three of us put on Santa hats for the Christmas card!

Wednesday was very busy, it seemed like the entire base was rushing around making last minute preparations for Thanksgiving. I dropped Avery off at day care for a bit so I could run some errands. The moment I began my errands the gas light began flashing. I don't like to pump gas, our truck is a diesel and the amount of money it takes is traumatizing. I was forced to fill her up and nearly died when I saw how much it cost. I went to the TMC afterwards to pick up the medical records that Good Morning Hospital sent over. The records were in Korean so they didn't do me a lot of good. I needed to refill a few prescriptions so I had to make the trip either way. We were told our family photos would be ready for pick up on Wednesday so I hurried over to the photo shop. The photos turned out great! I couldn't get over how beautiful Avery looked. Even after sitting in my car staring at Avery's photos I still had 30 minutes to spare before lunch, I spent it relaxing at Starbucks :)

Avery's day care was hosting a Thanksgiving lunch for parents. There was a line at the buffet so I went straight to Avery's class room. The kids were already eating. The day care workers are magicians, I don't know how they manage to get all 8 kids eating quietly and politely at one time. The kids over a year sat in chairs around an adorable foot high table eating their meal. Avery is the baby of the group and still sits in a high chair, well sort of a low chair since it sits directly on the floor. Avery still eats baby food, she is not interested in table food at all. I was the first parent in the room and sat on the floor to take over feeding Avery. Other parents came into the room with a plate full of food. I was starving but worried about Avery's reaction to me leaving - the other kids were freaking out when their parents went to get seconds and left the room. I hesitantly got up waiting for her reaction but she didn't seem to care. The food selection was great: turkey, ham, mashed red potatoes, gravy, rolls, and various types of sides. I offered Avery some of my food but she refused. Since I finished all of my errands I decided to take Avery home after lunch but she didn't want to go. Every time I tried to put her shoes on she crawled away from me. I was happy that she was getting over her separation anxiety but a little sad at the same time. I decided to leave her at day care for another 2 hours and went home to label Christmas cards.

Steven and I picked up Avery together before going to the PX and commissary for some last minute items. We had planned to get things for burgers but completely forgot. I decided to run back to the commissary but wasn't fast enough to beat the rush. That place was a madhouse!! The night before Thanksgiving is not the time to shop. I bailed on the idea and left empty handed. By the time I got home Steven had already bathed Avery and put her to bed.

Thanksgiving. Avery's first Thanksgiving! We had dinner at Kendig's house - she works with Steven and her husband plays air soft with him. The evening was so much fun! There were 18 guests (kids included) so thankfully Steven had rented tables from Outdoor Rec that morning. Dinner was absolutely amazing, one of the best I've had. We had juicy turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, two types of gravy, corn casserole  green bean casserole  corn on the cob, stuffing, candied yams, sweet potatoes, rolls and two types of cheese cake. Almost everything was made from scratch, if my stomach was bigger I would have eaten all night long. Steven made the corn casserole  it was to die for and got many compliments, I was so proud :) After dinner Avery had a blast crawling all over the house, exploring and making friends. She was tuckered out by the time we got home.

I got to sleep in on Friday morning, it was magical. Steven and Avery woke me up with Starbucks and compliments on how pretty I was...too many compliments. In our family Steven is the spender and I am the saver. I had forgotten that it was Black Friday and knew the compliments and coffee were to butter me up. Steven explained that he bought a GoPro for 50% off. He has wanted a GoPro for so long that the sale was too good for him to pass up. I was really bummed that I didn't get to go REAL Black Friday shopping. I miss getting a few hours of sleep, a middle of the night coffee run and shopping the sales.

Steven's version of Friday:
"Today Steven went crazy and spent a bunch of money. I wanted to stab him so hard but the thought of him not being around to watch the kid when i'm annoyed was the only thing that stopped me."

That's not how you use a spoon

Over the weekend Steven went to an air soft convention with two of his buddies. The convention was in Seoul so the drive should have taken around 4 hours round trip. Traffic was HORRIBLE and they ended up being gone for 8 hours. Avery and I spent the day re-watching The Walking Dead seasons. My baby is full of surprises - she stood on her own! I looked up to see her standing across the room playing with a toy. I tried to discreetly get my camera but the moment she noticed me her concentration was broken and she fell.

Avery trying to hack into my laptop

Steven and I were finally able to send out our Christmas cards on Sunday - it was a challenge though. After I labelled all the envelopes I realized we were 5 stamps short, we made a trip to the PX to get more. I decided to seal the envelopes on the drive but realized there was no sticky section to do so. We ended up sitting in Starbucks with a glue stick and stickers sealing envelopes haha. The photo place on base is SO expensive. I really wish we could have made more cards to send to friends. I definitely miss having a Walgreens photo center this time of year.

Avery Quinn - 46 weeks