it all began with Ben and a bbq: Ben's 1st Thanksgiving-Gobble! Gobble!

The experience of Ben's first months is a constant battle between hoping he'll just stop changing and growing, and looking forward to when he can participate and enjoy things more. Thanksgiving was a day I found myself looking forward to when Ben can be as excited as the rest of us!
I was Thankful to get home from AZ a few days early to finish preparations for the big day. Tante Mollusk drove in Wednesday night and the house was already filled with the smell of turkey thanks to friend TJ's recipe (so easy). We were also surprised with Nana Pat who had been stranded in Dallas and stopped on her way home to Denver. She took Molly's car from Wichita home so Molly got to drive with Ben and I back to Colorado on Sunday.
Chrystal and TJ and Baby Boy Johnson (still cooking then) also joined us. I had told her weeks prior I'd be happy to cook enough for them though we all hoped they'd be busy with a new baby.
I don't think Ben's Turkey Day attire made it to dinner but I know the good smells kept him hungry.

On Friday morning, Mollusk and I attempted our first ever before dawn Black Friday shopping. One or both of us almost always worked in retail over the years so we had traditionally saved our big shopping day for 12/26. We arrived at Target at 3:45 am with cheap DVD's and a few other things on our list. The line was LONG. When I say LONG, I mean L O N G! Security stood in the parking lot to insure all in line got in before anyone who had just arrived. We heard later on the news that it took 1.5 hours for the entire line to make it through the door-crazy!! We were done at Target by 4:30 and hit Starbucks en route to Best Buy only to have a teen-age punk (ok, really he looked quite respectable) grab the last of what we had come for. We were home by 6am, where Nana Pat was ready to hit the road to Denver and Molly headed back to bed.
The rest of the weekend was filled with Baby-Booking, Christmas Card ordering, fall decor take-down, movie watching, and a seven hour drive to Denver on Sunday for Ben and Molly and I.