Thanksgiving

Oh, the holidays... how I love them! I love seeing family and spending time with people I love, but don't normally get to spend much time with. And now Eli is getting old enough to share that with us. Last year was his 'first Christmas', but he really didn't care one bit about any of the things going on. :) This year I hope he will notice and enjoy things more. He already is more aware of people; even if he doesn't see them every day or every week, he is starting to remember grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins.

Off of the holiday subject for a minute, I find myself getting more lax in my picture taking... I wondered why, but after thinking about it, it's probably a combination of things; Eli getting older and moving around more (harder to take pictures when he won't stop moving and always getting into things), and my desire to be with him and interact with him, not just be by him taking pictures. I love to read to him, or play stacking games (a current favorite), or walking around the house with him, or play his 'chase me up the stairs' game (he loves someone to chase him up the stairs and growl and say "I'm gonna get you!"). Oh, I'll still take pictures, it just may not be the 20 pictures a day like in the beginning (you've probably already noticed the decrease over the last few months!). :) Trust me, I didn't post half the pictures I took of him!

Getting back to holidays; we spent Thanksgiving Day with Josh's side of the family, and the next day with my side.

Eli was very interested in a game Josh and Jake were playing.

Eli and Aunt Lauren!

Cousins with grandparents!

Grandpa was making funny faces!

I know these pictures are not of the holidays and they are late (as they are one-year-old pictures), but I wanted to finally share them!

For whatever reason, he really likes to put his hand in his mouth when he's smiling about something!

This one is one of my favorites... it was just him being him! 

I gave him this little pumpkin to hold and he acted like "what am I supposed to do with this?" 

My other favorite! He loved the bubbles! 

Some family pictures... in my photographer's defense, she says we are very pale and had to edit quite a bit to get our faces this good (I still think we look pale, 'cause we are, but editing can only go so far!).