Thanksgiving, DFW-style!

After 26 years of spending Thanksgiving with my parents/grandparents, I did something different this year. I stayed in Dallas with Philip, and we went to his sister's house in Fort Worth, where we spent Thanksgiving with her family and Philip's parents.

Ramses even went, as apparently he had planned:

It was his first time visiting Philip, and he didn't really know what to think. He walked around the apartment for the first 24 hours or so meowing at everything. But he did greatly enjoy the vertical blinds and the full length windows that allowed him to lay on the floor but still see out.

Philip's sister has four kids--I'm about to inherit a lot of nieces and nephews--that are all super adorable. And they are starting to become more comfortable with me, which is really sweet. They all love their Uncle Phil, of course.

Not this Uncle Phil

Friday morning, Philip and I went shopping for wedding bands, and I'm excited to say that we purchased mine! It matches my engagement ring really well, in spite of being a totally different brand. We haven't found one for him yet, but I'm hoping we will at the Kay Jeweler's sale going on this weekend.

Saturday morning, we took Fiona over to his sister's house to play with the kids. They are all still very small children, so I didn't want to bring Romeo since his tail is such a lethal weapon. The second oldest child was scared of Fiona as it was, so it was probably for the best that giant Romeo wasn't there.

Fiona enjoyed her solo outing:

But she doesn't like how far away from me she has to sit in Philip's back seat--she's used to my regular cab truck where she can sit against me the whole drive.

The oldest child loved Fiona. She thought it was hilarious when Fiona licked her and loved trying to make her wave and do tricks. At one point she took Fiona on a "walk" through the house, something that the second oldest even joined in on (although he ran away when Fiona turned towards him because he didn't want to be licked).

Fiona was wonderful with the kids...but she was OBSESSED with the seven-month old baby. At one point the baby was sitting on the floor, and Fiona would just lay across from her and stare at her. Every now and then she'd walk over and start licking her feet, and the baby would giggle and grab her fur, and Fiona would lick her hands instead. A couple of times she even licked her in the face. She also was obsessed with the baby's rattle, which was a stuffed bear. She tried to (gently) take it from her a couple of times, but she got scolded every time. When the baby was taken to the kitchen for a bath, Fiona whined and stared off in the direction she had disappeared the entire time she was gone. And when the baby returned and was drinking her bottle, Fiona did this the whole time:

Poor Corgi didn't know what to think about the tiny, dog-sized human (or "people-puppies," as Philip's sister's husband calls them).

It was a fun holiday, and I can't wait to spend Christmas with Philip and my family. He has my dad's whole side of the family to meet, so I hope he's excited!