Well, technically, some of our turkey & extra turkey stock is now stored in the freezer, but we are DONE with it for awhile! We had a nice Thanksgiving and we have A LOT to be thankful for. My mom came down for a visit. We had a traditional Thanksgiving meal... shopped on black Friday... and ate left-overs for days on end (even found some creative ways to re-make leftovers). Here, "grandma Gloria" & Mercer pose for a pic before we dive into dinner.
After eating leftovers for a week, we went up to the square to grab a slice of pizza at the local pizza joint and ran into our friends, the Ragan's. Of course, we had to grab chairs and all crowd around a table so that we could all eat together. 
These are Mercer's best buddies right now, as he always talks about Glady and Jackson. they like him a lot too -- especially Glady! 
Mercer is doing some cute things....
I took a trip for work to Chicago the week before Thanksgiving. Mercer hugged me and said, "your my friend mommy." He also likes to pull up his chair at dinner over to sit next to Todd or me... or asks one of us to come sit next to him. He says, "come, play with me." Todd and I feel like he really enjoys our company.
There's another side of him too - as mentioned on previous blog posts - he's also independent. He "demands" sometimes that he does things FIRST. (Don't know why "first" but we know it's a way for him to exhibit control.) He is also adamant about trying to put on his own clothes. 
Here, he is insisting that this red shirt goes on his legs. The next week, he is insisting that these blue & white striped pajama pants go over his head. (I think on this one, he was actually stalling at bed-time while also trying to be funny.) But, we enjoy it none-the-less.
Here are some pics I meant to post before we left town, but didn't have time. 
Mercer and I tried making a gingerbread house this year. Unfortunately the little staunches that were to hold up the roof fell right off & the whole thing collapsed. Mercer had fun anyhow. He discovered that red hots are actually hot. 
He ate one and it took him several drinks from his bottle before his mouth wasn't burning any longer. Also, he discovered that he enjoyed eating gum drops more than sticking them in the icing on the house. Here, he is acting like he's about to put it on his house, then last minute pops it in his mouth. He thinks it's funny to trick us now. 
(Is this devious or cute?) 
A week ago we had a little Christmas celebration at our house. Mercer's grandparents sent an art easel down & he enjoyed playing with this. He ran right to it and drew all over it. Later, he opened a T
oy Story toy that we had gotten him and a little nativity set we got him as well. We're now on our trip to NC and NJ. I'll blog about that later, but wanted to get these pre-holiday pictures posted. 
Merry Chirstmas to All.......
