Thanksgiving.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My sister Monica came down from Lompoc and Christa and Bobby came up from Aliso Viejo...we had the best time relaxing, eating and playing Clue. Christa and I had put our heads together and planned a fun new menu for our feast.

It all started with some appetizers: peach cobbler spritzers, stuffed mushrooms, roast beef & swiss tortilla roll-us, and an asiago & red pepper wheel with a variety of crackers.

Then on to the main meal: honey brined-hickory smoked turkey, cheesy stuffing cups, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato crisp, cucumber mozzarella salad, blushing apples, cranberry sauce and olives.

The turkey was AWESOME!!! I had Aaron put it in a roasting pan on the grill so that I could make gravy from the drippings. It was so good that we will be doing it that way every year. Maybe we'll mix up the brining flavors, but smoking on the grill is my method of choice! Besides, it frees up the oven for other things and doesn't overheat the house.

After we ate and cleaned up, we played a few rounds of Clue, which I haven't played in years! Totally fun. When we finished up, we were all hungry again. We didn't even cut into the pumpkin pie but decided to wait until the after-party meal. That's right - rather than eat what we just ate all over again, I came up with a new post-feast menu. We had steamed artichokes, shrimp scampi, cheeseball & crackers...Christa also put together a few turkey and cranberry sauce croissants for good measure. We followed up our after-party meal with pumpkin and cocoa cloud pie. At the center of every good day is a great meal and in our case, we had 2 of them!

After Christa and Bobby headed home I checked on Kristiaan who skipped dinner saying he didn't feel so great. I just let him watch a movie from the couch where he eventually fell asleep. When I checked him, he felt really warm, and so I checked his temperature as well - 104.6! I am not usually an overly concerned mom. I usually observe things for a bit and usually whatever is ailing them just rides out. However, when my kids get a high fever (102 or higher), I tend to be a bit more watchful...just in case. So, I gave Kristiaan some Advil and he fell back asleep. Since I was concerned about such a high fever, I checked his temp every 5 minutes waiting for the Advil to take effect. about 15 minutes after the dose, I was checking his temp for the 3rd time, when he had a seizure. Talk about freaking out. He wasn't convulsing, just staring blankly and then every 10 seconds he would stiffen and his arms and legs would shake. I was sitting on the floor by the couch trying to get him to respond to me. About the 3rd cycle of stiffening, I lost it, I scooped Kristiaan off the couch into my lap and held him tight (something I didn't know you should never do) and just started bawling! I was rocking him back and forth and asked Aaron to get me a cold washcloth. When I started washing his face, he finally came to and started crying and protesting - I sure it's because the washcloth was freezing on his fevered face!

Well, it only lasted about 2 minutes max and Kristiaan's fever was back to normal within 30 minutes of the Advil. He took a bath and went to bed. Needless to say, I was shaken for a couple days. After doing a bunch of reading online and consulting WebMd, I discovered when febrile seizures (fever seizures) happen and if it's the first time, there's no real danger or concern...unless it happens again and then the doctor will want to perform tests and stuff. Ever since then, Bubba has been totally fine. I talked with his pediatrician over the phone today and he just confirmed everything that I had read and said there was no need to bring Kristiaan in. He even told me that when there is a seizure caused by a high fever, there is less concern than one happening for no apparent reason. There is a chance that Kristiaan could have another one, but then again he might not. So, we just need to stay informed and know what to do if it should happen again.

In other less disturbing news, Brayden went a 9-hour stretch last night! I fed him a little after 9:00 while we were and Christa's and then put Brayden down about 10:15 when we got home. He didn't get up to eat again until 6 this morning. I was so excited that we may have reached a full night! Now, if only Aaron and I can get to bed earlier, we may actually not be so tired all the time! He's 7 1/2 weeks already. Time really flies.