finally done with the turkey & stuffing

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.

We're starting to move now into the holiday season. Right after Thanksgiving, we set up a tree and only got the lights on it. The next morning, he was amazed. The following day, I added ribbon and Mercer was amazed that something new appeared on the tree while he was asleep. The following day, he & I hung up shatter-proof ornaments.

Todd put up some lights on the outside of the house & he is amazed / excited by them every time we drive home at night.

This is, indeed, a great age!