Saturday, November 26, 2011

Our Little Thanksgiving

Because of Lillian's vulnerable immune system [1], we've been encouraged by her various pediatricians [2] to avoid taking her into settings where there are likely to be sick people (e.g. Church, the grocery store, family gatherings, etc.) So for the first time we've spent Thanksgiving by ourselves instead of going to spend it with extended family. Despite our isolation we had a good time and ate plenty of delicious food.


At the beginning of November (on my birthday, actually) Leann's mother came up to see us. While she was here she helped Leann prepare a few things (potato rolls and pecan pies) and freeze them away so that she wouldn't have too much to do all at once to get ready for Thanksgiving.



I still had to go in to work a little bit every day during the break, but when I was home I took care of Lillian so that Leann could finish her preparations. And she did a wonderful job! Besides the aforementioned rolls and pies, she made potatoes and gravy, corn [3], stuffing, candied yams [4], and turkey breasts.[5] She also made sparkling cranberry juice for the beverage.


Normally Lilli will sit quietly in her rocker while we eat our dinner. But Thanksgiving dinner must've been too exciting to watch us eat it from underneath the table because she insisted on sitting on my lap. But once she was up there, she was pretty well behaved. We're grateful for many things, but most of all this year we're grateful that despite her premature birth, we have a beautiful baby girl in our family who's growing with leaps and bounds and has the cutest smile we've ever seen.


Notes:

[1] This is due to her premature birth. See my post Unexpected Delivery.

[2] She had several pediatricians while in the NICU and another during and after her discharge. Now that Leann isn't working, we've switched to BYU's student health plan and use the doctors at the student health center.

[3] I put my corn on my mashed potatoes and gravy. Back when I was a wee tyke they used to set up the table for Thanksgiving dinner in my Grandma and Grandpa Mecham's living room. One year I was sitting next to my Uncle Derek, who was helping me dish up and he put my corn on my mashed potatoes and gravy. I've since come up with three possible reasons for this: 1. he was already in the habit of doing so with his own corn, potatoes, and gravy (in the many years since I've never bothered to see if this is the case); 2. it was an accident; or 3. my plate was already full and there was nowhere else to put the corn. Regardless of what his motives were, it was delicious and I've done the same ever since.

[4] She left the marshmallows off half since I dislike them.

[5] We didn't feel like we could eat a whole turkey by ourselves. We're also putting off the cranberry Jell-O until next week so we're not trying to eat too much at once.

1 comment:

  1. I wish we had had pecan pie. That's one kind I actually like! Sounds like you had a lovely day!

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