When Jordan and I decided we wanted to have a baby, we were pretty particular about when we wanted to become parents. Ok, so maybe it was more me. Whatever.

I figured out when I’d be pregnant, how pregnant I’d be during certain times of year, what trips we’d have to miss, what we needed to do before I was pregnant, and most importantly of all, how I could make sure I didn’t have a baby too close to a holiday.

Well, serves me right. Delaney was due November 8th. It was PERFECT. Not too close to Halloween as long as I wasn’t early (which would be rare on number 1) and not too close to the BIG holiday season for this interfaith babe. Lucky for us, November 22nd is the earliest Thanksgiving can ever be so we are JUST in the clear with Delaney having to share her bday with a major holiday.

So anyway, Thanksgiving came exactly one week after Delaney was born. My family was scheduled to come in for the holiday and assuming I’d be 3 weeks out from birth, I figured we’d made dinner on our own, have everyone over, etc. Even though the timeline changed, I was still determined to do some of the cooking. I ended up really only being able to make the potatoes and bread.

Thanks to Jordan, who cooked the turkey and a lot of the sides, and my Mom, we had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner as a family for the first time!

Looking back, I cannot believe I did this. Hosting dinner for people is insane by itself when you aren’t a brand new parent but I’m really, really proud of how well Jordan and I did this early on. Not having family local makes things a little different for us and it was really important to me to be with family and have a homemade Thanksgiving. It may not have seemed like a lot of work, but it was! And it was delicious.

And of course, this year we were EXTRA thankful for our sweet, healthy girl.