First Thanksgiving with our little Butterball

I have found that nothing makes me feel more blessed than when I am sitting quietly with Matthew at the end of the day. I just look at every inch of his sweet body when he is curled up with me for his last feed of the day. As I stroke his hair and take in his sweet smell I am in disbelief that I have everything in life I ever wanted. Holding your baby makes you feel like you are the most blessed person on the planet and you wonder how you ever got to be so lucky. These are the blessing we continue to count every day, but especially on this holiday:

• Thankful for a happy, growing baby, who enjoys his days and sleeps well at night
• Thankful for my time off from work, which allows me to see how much Matthew grows and changes from week to week, in addition to loving on him all day
• Thankful for Matthew's good health and growth and all that he is learning to do each day
• Thankful for good health for all of our family, including us and our parents and brothers and sisters.
• Thankful for a great daddy for my son, a man who is creative and loving in his play with Matthew and a daddy who will help Matthew grow into a man of great integrity and character
• Thankful for a husband who works hard for us, provides for our family, and will someday show our son the value of hard work, dedication, and responsibility.
• Thankful for good jobs for both of us, jobs that allow us to provide for our family but also jobs that give us a lot of time off to be together and spend time with Matthew
• Thankful for a wonderful extended family who loves us so much. Thankful for giving and selfless grandparents and aunts and uncles who are so good to Matthew and to us.
• Thankful for my mom being so close and having her here when I need her as my mom and when I need her as Matthew's grandmother. Thankful for her big heart and how wonderfully enthusiastic she is to help take care of Matthew.
• Thankful for a safe and comfortable home, when so many people have struggled to stay in their homes.
• Thankful for good friends who treat us like family. Friends who are considerate and selfless and remind us how to enjoy life with laughter.
• Thankful for our freedoms that so many have fought and paid for both in the past and in the present.
• Thankful for our church and the comfort and peace I feel when my husband and I listen to sermons together, and for a church that takes good care of Matthew for us while we are there.

We went to Boca Raton to celebrate all the blessings for which we are so thankful this year. All of Matthew's Moran aunts and uncles (or tios and tias as they are called on this side of the family) and his Grandparents were happy to welcome him home for a nice family get-together. Matthew's MamaAdina had prepared a wonderful little home away from home for Matthew and for us. She had the master bedroom set up for us to use, complete with a full-sized crib for Matthew and a chair for me to nurse him in, and the adjoining bathroom had a changing pad and bath tub to use so we had all the comforts of home. Everyone was happy to hold and play with Matthew, play with his toys with him and read to him, take him outside and on walks, and pretty much love on him all they wanted!

We had a nice meal with not only a turkey, but pork and fish too. Rachel and I worked on some side dishes and desserts and Adina added a few of her Peruvian-spin Thanksgiving dishes too. We played games at night after Matthew went to bed and even made it out to go bowling one night while MamaAdina and Tia Suzy babysat with Matthew.

On Thursday late at night daddy went out to Best Buy to fight the Black Friday crazies in search of a nice DSLR camera so we can get some great pictures of our fast-moving little cutie. He found a great deal and was lucky to get a camera with just what we were looking for. We recently bought a camera but decided we wanted to upgrade so we can get some really quality shots of Matthew, especially since he often moves too quickly for us to get him with the camera we have now. It takes great pictures if he is sitting still. In addition to our new camera, Grandpa Neno bought us a video camera, which has a lot of cool features, including being waterproof and a "Share" button for quick uploads to Facebook or YouTube.

On Friday we went to have Moran Family portraits taken. We got some really nice shots of the whole family, and a couple of Matthew by himself too.