General apologies for the huge gaps between posts. This fall seems to be busier than most. Here are a few cute stories we missed sharing. Hopefully I can add some pictures tonight.
This morning in the car, Colleen was singing a song for her preschool Christmas show, over and over. Robert was annoyed and "asked" her to stop. I reminded him that just a couple weeks ago he was singing his Thanksgiving songs (pictured at performance) and how it annoyed Elizabeth at the time. I asked him if he remembered what I said to her. He said with a scowl, "That I was definitely allowed to practice singing. I hate it when you're right, Mom."
Colleen was complaining about the sun being in her eyes in the car. I said that we could bring her sunglasses next time. She said, "My sunglasses don't work. The sun is boiling my blood! Do something!" Evidently her old sunglasses didn't cover enough of her eyes and would let the sun through. So the next time we were at Target we found these huge bug-eye sunglasses. Now the sun doesn't boil her eyes anymore.
Besides working extremely hard at school and earning terrific grades to prove it, the past few weeks for Elizabeth have been about The Birthday. Twelve years old last Tuesday. Colleen told everyone at preschool - "yest
erday she was eleven and today she is twelve." Her birth"day" was actually drawn out over a couple of weeks, starting with Nonna taking her and a friend, Jack, to a wonderful performance of The Wizard of Oz at Hopkins High School. She had a blast; there were actual flying monkeys. Then two books from Mom and Dad that she just couldn't wait 5 days until her birthday to read so she got them early. Then her actual birthday with a package from Nanny (beautiful Guardian Angel that now hangs over her bed) and cupcakes with the special-made cinnamon butter cream frosting. Then from the St. Paul Colemans she got "awesome" Smencils and cold hard cash to go toward her new desk chair (note to self: get E to Ikea!). I confess that I succumbed to the ease of using the Thanksgiving gathering for the official "Happy Birthday!" where she (and others I hope) enjoyed her favorite Pineapple Mallow Pie (thank you to Betty Crocker and to Nonna for the loan of Betty Crocker) and got the coveted Star Trek reboot DVD from Uncle Ryan. She and Robert watched it 3 times the next day. With all the extras and commentary, they watched it practically all day.
We took advantage of our Friday off to clear some more boxes from the living and dining room so more and more it looks like we live her permanently. It's a great feeling to get the number of boxes down to regular storage, not moving boxes. Our garage is ridiculously large and my next big project is to organize the storage in there.
On an unrelated note - hey, where's the snow? The weather is very un-Minnesota-like at the moment and we're getting nervous about Christmas. Robert asked me after Thanksgiving, "Is it possible that we won't have a white Christmas?!"
I had planned about waxing much more poetic about Thanksgiving but time never really developed for me to do that. So I'll just scale it back and say we had a wonderful time at our first Thanksgiving in Minneapolis since 2003. I had grown to accept turkey day with Cate's family in Pennsylvania, and at times possibly even enjoyed it, but it just wasn't the same.
Mom entertained 33 people, Neil made great gravy, the kids had a great time with their cousins and kids of family friends and the like. I don't remember specifics of getting the food on the table from previous years but it seemed like with three grown sons things got a lot easier.
Mom may disagree, who knows.
Plus, we survived a mix of family that could well have been fraught with disaster.
Turkey, mashed potatoes, two types of gravy, stuffing, Mama Stamberg's cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, wild rice, more pies than you could shake a fork at ... and a professional, or at least experienced meat carver. (Bob, at right, who is not related. Nor is mom's friend Nancy.)
There were two kids' tables, delineated by age, with the littlest ones by themselves. Somehow that didn't turn out to be a disaster. Elizabeth got to sit with cousin Matt's two younger kids, who are in the 10 and 12 range, and a neighbor who is her age as well. I'm sure that was an interesting conversation. The photo above shows only the grown-up table.
For everything that must be stirred, there is a spoon that must be licked.
Even if that spoon was stirring cranberry relish that includes onions and horseradish. Apparently, not a problem. We'll see if she eats it on Thursday.
It's nothing like the chocolate chip cookies she "helped" make a couple weeks ago.
Elizabeth wrote this for a school homework assignment in November. I recently came across it and thought it should be shared. I didn't fix any spelling but I did add paragraph breaks.
This Thanksgiving I went to Pennsylvania were my cousins and great aunts live. My family and I drove there with my aunt and grandma all day.
We went to my great aunt Mimi's house, near Washington Crossing. For dinner we had roasted turkey with celery stuffing, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, carmels, stuffed celery, fruit salad, banana-nut bread, hot apple cider and lots of other things. It was delicious.
When I walk into the kitchen, it smelled like all the good things in the world. Scents of cinnamon, apple, flowers and warmth floated through the halls.
All my family was there. There were crackers that you pull on each and it pops and toys, a crown and a puzzle fall out. I got a chain puzzle and a box with a pen in it in a cracker.
My cousins Christopher, and Cassidy played with my brother and I the next day. Cassidy and I played Polly Pockets. Christopher and Robert play Lego Pirates.
That night went to see a movie. We saw, "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium." It was funny.
My birthday was that Saturday. We celebrated it there. My great aunts got me: a globe that has constalations on it and a light bulb inside, a toy monkey, and clothes. I also got: a coat, a book, a giftcard, more clothes, a Webkinz, and a Harry Potter castle.
It was a fun Thanksgiving Break.
