Thanksgiving


the table
Originally uploaded by telfandrea.

Next time we have Thanksgiving I want to try to take better pictures. But I guess if that’s my biggest regret, I think it means we were just having a really good time. Not only was the food wonderful – I think this is the best turkey ever – but I just love my family. All the kids got along so well and when you consider there were two 2-year-olds that’s saying something.

Cate loved having her cousins here. I came up the stairs once and found Cate and my nieces reading in the chair in Cate’s room. Such a nice thing to happen upon.

I had Alyssa make actual “I’m Thankful For” cards to put on our plates. After dinner we wrote them out and put them in the pumpkin pictured in the middle of the table. Everyone, including Chris and Mendy (so happy they came to dinner), picked a card out and read aloud. It was so deliberate and special. I am feeling especially thankful this year for so many obvious and not-so-obvious reasons.

Also, we decided to start the tradition of frosting sugar cookies with the little girls. Alyssa, Elizabeth and I have such good memories of frosting cookies at my cousin’s house in Bend at Thanksgiving. Alyssa brought all the cookies and made the frosting and all of us girls spend the morning frosting. Cate did one or two and was done. I actually did much better than I have ever done before (usually I am a bit of a joke) so everyone was quite proud of me. Fun, fun.


cousins all reading
Originally uploaded by telfandrea.


the expert
Originally uploaded by telfandrea.


cate frosted this!
Originally uploaded by telfandrea.

Behind


jane josephine
Originally uploaded by telfandrea.

So I have a million pictures to upload and a whole lot to say but I haven’t been able to get it together this week. And now it is Friday morning and Cate is in the bath and Jane is about two minutes from needing to eat. So this will be quick. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my family, really, it couldn’t have been more fun.

Telfer and Jane and I are headed to Vancouver, BC in a couple of hours for Telfer to attend a conference. Yeah! I have never been to Vancouver so I am just a little excited. Cate is staying with Chris and Mendy for the weekend (thank you!!) and Henry is going to try out a local kennel for the first time.

As you can see by the picture, Jane has developed a personality and is so delightful most of the time. She has been sleeping a little better at night and hasn’t been quite as fussy in the daytime. I love this beginning-to-smile-stage. We went to the pediatrician a week before Thanksgiving and she weighed 8 lbs 8 ounces. I admit I was a little proud. More on Monday.

A sampling


Apples for applesauce!
Originally uploaded by telfandrea.

I made the most ridiculously elaborate to-do list last night. It's 2:20 PM and I have finished exactly one thing: make applesauce. Cate helped me from start to finish but then wouldn't try it! Hello? In my classic over-caffeinated fashion, I have started many things but have finished none. But I have managed to almost sever the tip of my thumb on the knife Telfer just sharpened for me. Fun!

A sampling of my to-do list (some of it is too embarrassing to include):
vacuum
clean bathrooms
bathe Henry
bathe my children
LAUNDRY
plan Thanksgiving dinner (my family is coming to our house! yeah!)
food/pajamas for church
"in the future" list (so meta)
update calendars
look for a freezer on craigslist
thank you notes to ____ & _____
birthday packages to _____ & ______
fun package to _____ 
email!!
call pediatrician 
and finally: make applesauce

All over the place


washington state license
Originally uploaded by telfandrea.

And that, my friends, pretty much sums up my current state. I think caring for a 2-year-old has totally rubbed off on me and my attention span is probably not as good as Cate's.

Yesterday Telfer got home way earlier than I expected. The trail of "projects" and groceries and packages began in the kitchen and continued unabated through the dining room and finally ended where I sat on the couch, holding Jane and reading the first Harry Potter. Whoops! On Monday I realized there is seven weeks until Christmas, and isn't that a sign that I should read one Harry Potter a week until Christmas Eve? Never mind that I am reading like 10 other books and cooking up a storm and you know I have two children and a dog?

You can see what I am reading on the right but I did read the latest YA trilogy that is all the rage and enjoyed them. I am such a sucker but thought they were really well plotted and exactly what I needed at this moment in my life. I made America's Test Kitchen French Onion Soup. Yum-O. A couple of Saturday ago I made muffins, banana bread, the aforesaid soup (so complicated), roasted several batches of squash, and a pear-cranberry crisp all with the baby in the sling and Cate underfoot. A little manic but so fun!

What else am I doing? To add insult to injury, my California driver's license expired while I was in the hospital so to get my Washington driver's license I had to take both the WRITTEN and the actual DRIVING TEST. So basically I drove around Olympia getting lost for two months with an expired license. Through only divine intervention did I not get pulled over. So STRESSFUL. Not only did I feel 16 again but I managed to turn on my windshield wipers instead of the blinkers when my examiner was standing in front of the car. And then I seriously cannot back around a corner to save my life. Telfer managed to teach me how to parallel park moments before my test began and somehow I got a 92%. I think my examiner felt sorry for me – a 32-year-old woman with two empty carseats who can't back around a corner. The picture above is me holding my new, hard-won license at our celebratory lunch at Red Robin (thanks Missy & Jason!). I think I deserved a hamburger.