Thanksgiving This Year

I am so excited to have our first major holiday here with our little family. It started out that we were not going to travel but my sister was going come into town to spend the weekend with us. She has done this before, most recently when I was pregnant with Eleanor. (Vince's comment about a turkey under my shirt was pretty funny and true.) Now this year's party includes grandmas, aunts, uncles, cousins -- we are going to have a huge houseful of family -- the perfect way to celebrate our thankfulness.


As the gathering has grown, I have decided that I need to be at least a little bit organized in order to have enough food on the table to feed everyone. I've been thinking that I'll just put together the menu here on the blog and any of you who are coming can tell me what I've missed or if there is something you can't live without on Turkey Day.


These are my thoughts:

** Turkey (of course)

** Mashed potatoes, my favorite

** Green bean casserole, for Vince

** Broccoli casserole, a family tradition on our side (with Cheese Whiz - yum!)

** Cranberries, gotta have 'em

** Stuffing, another "must have"

** Pies: cherry, berry and pumpkin -- with real whipped cream - double yum!!


What else? Maybe a squash? Bread? Wine?

Library Books - week of November 5, 2007

Last week we checked out a bunch of books from the library that were not very exciting to Eleanor. If they are not of interest to her, they do not get reviewed. Now, however, we have a fabulous stack of books, which she finds much more appealing, so I figured it was time to do another library book roundup.

1. Peek! A Thai Hide-and-Seek by Minfong Ho, illustrated by Holly Meade
Eleanor is just starting to get into hiding and seeking so this book is perfect. The daddy in the book is looking for his little girl all around the yard, which happens to be filled with all sorts of exotic creatures making interesting noises. The rhyme is nice and I've even learned that "Jut-Ay" is the Thai equivalent of peek-a-boo. An added bonus -- the little girl is semi hidden on each page and Eleanor takes great pleasure in pointing her out.

2. Construction Zone by Tana Hoban
Tana Hoban created the Black on White book that I wrote about here. This book is equally as captivating but for an older (toddler-ish) audience. Actually, Henry enjoys it too. Anyway, Construction Zone features full color photos of heavy machinery, perfect for the truck/train/digger obsessed crowd. Each page simply has the name of the machine featured and the last page showcases thumbnails of each machine with a brief description of what it is doing. Eleanor enjoys pointing at the machines on the last page and having me read the descriptions in the order of her choosing. This usually involves reading the garbage truck and the dump truck much more frequently than any of the others.

3. The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper, illustrated by Loren Long
This is the classic Little Engine that Could with fantastic new artwork. This wonderful story is complimented so very nicely by the exquisite paintings. I love reading this book to Eleanor and giving the different engines that come along different voices. And, the images make you really believe that the dolls and toys are really about to cry -- slumped shoulders, sullen faces. If you haven't read the book, or can't remember how things turn out, don't worry, it ends well with the help of the sweet little blue engine.

Family Portrait

Every year, I want to have a picture of our family taken professionally. This is my anniversary present from Vince, weather he likes it or not. Every year so far -- this includes last year and this year -- I have made an appointment for the photos, planned our outfits, and corralled the family into the car to make it on time for the shoot. Vince thinks I am a bit crazy about planning the outfit, but, hey, without a bit of planning there could be complete color and pattern discord. At any rate, we were fairly successful this year, despite having a tired Henry and a zoned out Eleanor. Here are a couple of the shots from our session:

Memory

Eleanor grows daily -- every moment she learns and develops new skills. This is no surprise, at a young age humans are often compared to sponges, soaking in everything around them. I imagine that soon she will begin forming permanent memories, which lead me to think about my own earliest recollections. I was trying to think of my very first memory, one remembered from my own mind and not from a picture I may have seen. I think it must have been at nursery school. I remember playing at the side of the church where our nursery school was housed, on a grassy hill surrounded by bushes that seemed quite large at the time. The bushes, evergreens of some sort, had little red berries with holes on one side, which I am fairly certain were poisonous. My classmates and I would also play Wonder Woman, ride big wheels around the blacktop, and play in the snow. I remember indoors we hammered bottle caps on pieces of wood with real hammers and nails -- would this even be allowed in a nursery school now?! It certainly was fun though.

Thinking about these things for myself made me wonder what Nana, now into her nineties, would remember about the early years of her life. I asked her the other day, and I think I must have caught her off guard with such an unusual question. She told me that she remembered the birth of her youngest brother, I imagine the birth was quite different now than it would have been back then. This also made me think that I should ask the rest of you (family, and friends too if you like) what your earliest or most vivid memories are. If you feel like you want to share you can post a comment at the end of this. I can put them together in a future post and keep them for our future generations.


And, speaking of future generations, I went to an open house on Sunday for a nursery school for Eleanor. Can she really be at an age where I need to be putting in applications to preschools? I guess so. I think this place would be a perfect match for our girl -- and frankly it reminded me of my own nursery school. It is convenient, the parents and teachers were extremely nice and it seems that they have a caring, laid back atmosphere with outdoor time every day. So, next year my little baby may be making her way up the hill to her first school!

Photos of One and the Other

I took this picture of Eleanor the other day because I thought it was hilarious and adorable that she had fallen asleep with her book. Then, to be fair to Henry, I took a boatload of pictures of him being cute too. Here are a few: