Thanksgiving

This year we hosted Thanksgiving at our house. It was great to be able to make such a large meal in our new kitchen with our new double oven! It was a special bonus that all the food, including the turkey, turned out delicious! (By the way, there is a lot of pressure on the cooker of the turkey. It it turns out dry it kind of puts a damper on the whole meal. Plus, I was told there needed to lots of gravy. Thankfully, I handled the pressure and both turned out great!)




Sydney woke up at 5:45 am very excited it was Thanksgiving and wanted to know all about the turkey. She was so intent when she watched me prepare it and enjoyed rubbing it with oil before it went in the oven. Of course, she did not even eat one bite of it at dinner. Like last year her Thanksgiving meal consisted of a roll and one bite of cranberry.

The Final Countdown

As you may or may not have noticed we have not blogged about our house renovations for a long time. This is not because they were finished a long time ago and we have just been blissfully living in our "new" new home. No, no. It is in fact, because they are still ongoing and we are simply too tired to say for the millionth time, "The renovations are still going on. I know it's been a long time, but I think it's almost done." Well, we can finally say this with TRUTH! We are truly going to move into our new bedrooms this weekend. We must or I think our spirits are going to break. Today we got carpet installed on the stairs and in the hallway. SJ thought this was great and proceeded to bring all kinds of toys upstairs to the hall to play. Unfortunately, the closet and bedroom doors now need to be shaved down because of the height of the new carpet. So I guess renovations are STILL going on, but REALLY, REALLY we are ALMOST done! (By the way, it was one year ago on the day after Thanksgiving that the initial phase of renovations started - the kitchen demo. We've come a long way over this year and will be very grateful when we can finally be settled!)

The Ballerina

SJ has ballet classes every Tuesday. Today was special in that the parents got to be in the studio and watch today. Here are some highlights of SJ the Ballerina:

At the start of the class all the kids sit in a circle and one by one annouce, "I'm here, Miss Maria," while assuming first position.

Butterfly dance with scarves.

Fall Classics

A Brave Little Girl

Tonight we had to take SJ to the Emergency Room. She fell while running up the stairs and cut her chin pretty badly. She ended up with 6 stitches, a little teddy bear (with North Dakota written on it - apparently "all they had" at the ER), a piece of chocolate, and a big syringe (a.k.a. the best squirt toy ever.) All the doctors and nurses were wonderful and kind and SJ was so chatty and brave. She didn't cry and didn't move an inch during the stitch process. I think she actually had fun at the hospital and it was an experience she won't soon forget. By the way, we headed to Mount Auburn Hospital ER and everything from the time we parked to the time of discharge was great. They took excellent care of our little brave girl.

SJ's baby cousin

SJ got to meet her baby cousin, Lily, today. Lily is very small, but SJ got to hold her and "play" with her with a rattle. SJ said she always wanted her cousin to be a girl! Lily was born on October 26th, the day before SJ's birthday! Welcome to the family, Lily!