Thanksgiving in Iowa

 

Tommy, Tessa and I had the pleasure of celebrating Thanksgiving (and our Wielenga family Christmas) in Iowa.  Tessa did really well on the plane, making friends from the get go.  We sat toward the front of the plane, and as every person passed us, she would say “hi,” turn and watch them pass, then turn to the next person as say “hi” to them as well.  I think it made a lot of people’s flight a little bit better (we were in flight for 45 minutes before they turned the planraround due to a problem with the autopilot, but luckily they had another plane ready for us to use when we arrived back at the airport.)

We had fun catching up with family and friends in Iowa, and also enjoyed celebrating Christmas and Tessa’s 1st fully healthy present opening experience (she was sick on her 1st birthday…see 1 year old! post).  Despite my personal desire to see snow, the entire trip was cold, but not white.  But still festive.

Here is my photo essay of Tessa’s present opening experience:

She liked the tissue paper….

 

And she liked carrying around her presents and sitting on them.

 

She like other people’s presents…

 

And she liked hers too!

Ok, she liked all of her presents, but she LOVED her slide.  She took each person by hand and drug them to the slide to help her up so she could slide down.  Pretty. Darn. Cute.

Here’s a short video of it.  Unfortunately I shot the video sideways and still have not figured out how to rotate it.  Sorry=).

In addition to opening presents and going down the slide, Tessa thoroughly enjoyed being spoiled by her grandparents and aunt, climbing up and down the stairs, and playing both a kids size and real size piano and organ.

I think one of the major highlights for me was taking Tessa to visit my dad at the high school he teaches at.  When I arrived, they were still in chapel, so I sat in the office and waited.  The office hallways goes back into the teacher’s lounge, with a door at the end of the room where the teachers entered.  When chapel ended and my dad walked through that door, Tessa sprinted down the hallway to him laughing and giggling.  Too precious. 

It was a fun trip with good memories and lots of reminders of the blessings God has given us.