Thanksgiving weekend

For us the holiday started at 6am with the sacrificing of Kieran's Halloween pumpkin for the Thanksgiving dinner dessert table. We said our goodbyes, thanked it for being such a nice pumpkin and told it that we appreciated it staying healthy right up to the very end. I was feeling a bit remorseful (my baby's first pumpkin!) but Kieran didn't see the emotion in it. After cutting it in half Kieran insisted on investigating and even eating some of our old friend raw. Mmm.


We took our hungry selves and our pies over to Carrie and Duff's beautiful house where we found Auntie Rachel (aka Kieran's favorite babysitter). PLOP went Kieran in Rachel's lap and Max and I proceeded to mingle with adults around the appetizer table.


Better not to take over-advantage of the free babysitting service so we relieved Rach after a few yummy morsels to tide us over until the feast. I think Max was going for "foreman" when he chose his attire for the evening.



It wasn't long before Max promoted Kieran to foreman. Kieran really wasn't interested in the job. I think Max needs to find a bigger hat.


Duff did the carving. Look, this turkey had four legs!


And we all enjoyed an absolutely fabulous holiday dinner...including Kieran who ate his turkey with all the trimmings and still had room for pumpkin pie. Maybe it was the big dinner that later resulted in Kieran taking his first unassisted steps! Just shy of 11 months. It was a big moment that we were able to share with everyone. What an excellent first Thanksgiving with our little person. We are very thankful for our terrific group of friends and for our family, living way too far away.

On Sunday we took a family ski up to the ridge trail and down into the valley north of our house. It was a lovely day, light snow falling, not too cold. Kieran spent the trip either sleeping or babbling happily in the chariot. The only time he protested was before we left when I took him back inside to get his booties and he thought that we weren't going out for a ski after all. So nice to have an outdoor kiddo!



We were nearly home when a snow machine passed us towing a guy on a mushing sled. Odd, we thought.


Odd, indeed! It was a diver, as in underwater and scuba. Of course! He showed us this block of ice to prove it. Why he thought we needed additional evidence, I don't know. He was wearing a frozen-stiff drysuit and an ice-crusted diving mask. He'd been diving in one of the valley lakes looking at beaver lodges under the ice. I guess we all have to do something to keep ourselves busy on a long weekend. You really never know what you're going to run into in this town!


Don't miss Kieran's video below!