Last year, at this time, we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of Cally. Of course, we didn't know it was Cally we were waiting for, but we were sure the baby would arrive any day. Little did we know we had a lot more waiting to do. We had moved out of our home in September and had hoped the renovation would be done and we'd be home by the time the "bun in the oven" arrived. "Renovation" is probably an understatement, we really decided to rebuild our house. This is what it looked like before the roof came off:
After the roof came off:
To kill the time, John spent two weeks feverishly painting the interior of our newly laid dry wall (with minimal help from me and loads of help from friends). Because "the baby" was due within weeks of Thanksgiving, we stayed up here in Vermont and did a friends gathering. Instead of feeling isolated and alone up here, we had a delicious, relaxing and entertaining feast. Our community of friends has become like a family away from family to us. Even before we'd become our own family, we knew our baby would have a family of friends surrounding her. These are the type of friends who make us feel like we have a web of support that is so strong and ever present that we can weather almost any storm.
So this year, when the holidays rolled around. We felt like we had to share the feast of thankfulness with that same group of people that was there for us last year. And so, 11 adults and 8 children gathered at the Harris/Plimpton homestead for football, fun, & feasting:
But because we aren't just thankful for our friends, we wanted to make the rounds to see family that we so appreciate, as well. First stop was Grandma and Grandpa Meyer's house where Cal got to pal around with Gus the cat and Maggie the dog:
Next, we headed up to Nana and Grandpa Abbott's. John got to go to his high school reunion and Cal got to hang out with her Aunt Lynn, Uncle Mark, and cousins Chris and Catherine.
So, besides being incredibly thankful for a wonderful, healthy, girl, great friends, and a supportive family. We are also very thankful to have our house "almost" done. In the past few weeks, we've insulated the downstairs and we actually got a chimney (so Santa can come visit Cally at the end of the month AND we can actually use our wood stove to supplement our fossil fuel burning). This really has been a year for which so much has happened to be thankful.
