Canadian Thanksgiving is one of my favourite holidays every year – what could be better than celebrating the health, family, and friends we’re blessed with by eating homemade feasts and basking in the crisp sunshine of an October long weekend? This year October feels especially lovely for me, as a November 4th due date means that this is also my ninth month of pregnancy and Thanksgiving is the last holiday we’ll share with the family before this baby makes her grand entrance (Halloween doesn’t count). It already feels like October is a month of anticipatory energy, of preparation and nesting, and of getting ready to hunker down for the winter with a newborn.

Thanksgiving weekend was equal parts slow and restful and chaotic and loud. We had downtime to go to the track after dinner, do hours of laundry at my moms, and chat with grandparents, but we also had time to catch up with a large (and growing!) extended family to share recipes, crack beers, and stuff our faces in general. But the best part of the weekend for me was realizing that wherever we go my silly, patient, imaginative husband is enthusiastically appreciated by children. Despite how easy it is to ignore kids (let’s be honest, they can be annoying), he remains un-phased when they use his iPhone, make him play the same game over and over again, feed him weird things, drag him into the teepee in the living room, or repeatedly wipe their boogers on his shirt (that last one courtesy of Amelia, photographic evidence above). Tom, I’m so thankful that your patience with me extends to everyone else as well, and that our daughter will always have an example of an adult who is intelligent, inquisitive, and immature.

Now where are those leftovers!?