Thanksgiving 2012 vs. 2013

Thanksgiving 2012 was without a doubt, the most magical Thanksgiving ever. (At least in my life!)

Ella's due date was November 16th, her Aunt Callie's birthday. And throughout our pregnancy I kept telling Josh, I didn't want to go early and have a Halloween baby, or go late and have a Thanksgiving baby - everything else was ok.

God had other plans.

It was a "Gillespie Thanksgiving" and everyone arrived in town on Wednesday. We hang out as a family and looked at about a million of those celebrity name memes, but this one did the trick.

My contractions started in full just a few hours later. Long story short - we arrived at the hospital at 6am on Thanksgiving morning. Although the day was exhausting, we met our 8lb 11oz turkey (just before the cafeteria closed...easiest Thanksgiving dinner ever) and our hearts instantly melted. The whole world stopped. Honestly, I really couldn't even image anyone else was still out there. My Ellanore was in my arms, and my mommy heart was bursting.

This Thanksgiving was awesome too. We had Josh's dad and sister, Katie, here as well as new friends from church, Ryan & Jessica.

I intentionally kept the cooking to a minimum - who wants to cook all day to eat for 30 minutes? Well, I guess, most of America.

Here is our sweet girl on her first (full) Thanksgiving - she only got about 6 hours last year - and missed the entire parade - what's Thanksgiving without the parade?