Thursday morning we woke up and Joel got right to work on the turkey and baking his famous home-made honey wheat rolls. Dean and I took a walk around the block and dropped of a little Thanksgiving cheer to our new neighbors, Wendy and Tui, who moved in behind us a few months ago. We are so thankful to live in such an awesome neighborhood and we really do have the best neighbors!!! After our walk, Dean took a nap while Joel and Grandma Jo prepared the turkey, rolls and potatoes. Grandma Susan and Grandpa Eddie came over around 1:00 with the broccoli and green bean casserole and pies. Don't worry...I didn't forget MY traditional contribution - the relish tray...each year I slave for such a long time over opening those olive jars and arranging both the green and black olives just right in the little divided dish and stuffing the celery sticks so carefully!!! (yes, I do know to be thankful that I married a man who can and likes to cook!!!). Grandpa Eddie wasn't feeling well, but he rallied for some turkey and we all stuffed ourselves then had a nice visit and some wine.


We've had a very busy week and the rest of the weekend will be busy too. We're celebrating Dean's 2nd birthday a week early tomorrow with a Pool Party at the Keali'i Ocean Villas. We're expecting about 10-15 toddlers and their parents, so that should be lots of fun!!! :-) Then on Sunday we have 2 more birthday parties for some of Dean's friends (then next week is both Grandma Jo AND TuTu Susan's birthdays!!).
In other exciting Dean news...Grandma Jo and Grandpa CR bought Dean a "Big Boy Bed" for his birthday / Christmas and we'll be setting that up tomorrow. Thank you Grandma & Grandpa!!!! You guys ROCK!! I was a little sad that tonight is his last night in his crib! Jo and I have had fun though planning Dean's new bedding and room accessories and picking out fabric for that. We're going for a surf theme with a kind of retro-ish color scheme of blues, greens and browns. I can't wait to share pictures of the finished projects...(no pressure Grandma Jo!!). Anyway, I'll probably be back tomorrow with some pictures from Dean's birthday party.