Thanksgiving and the Tree

We had a truly fabulous holiday with a full spread and a nice large gathering of family. The only downfall of the weekend was the cold that had Eleanor coughing and Vince and I complaining about our sore throats! I hope everyone else doesn't come down with the bug. At any rate, we owe a huge thanks to everyone who helped make it possible -- especially to Mu and Tada who came a few days early to help ready the house and prepare the food, not to mention the playing and reading with Eleanor and Henry. It most certainly would not have been possible without them.

We did manage to get a tree as well, though the farm that we have cut trees at for the past couple of years had sold the property and had no more trees for do-it-yourselfers. We were all cold and tired so we decided to just get a pre-cut tree rather than driving to another farm. We did have a nice lunch at a cute little place in Clifton, VA on the way home, complete with peanut soup and a caboose in the parking lot.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend, the rest are up in the Thanksgiving Week set.

Eleanor helped with food prep:


The table(s) was dressed with leaves (from adventure walks), wooden acorns, Lake Superior basalt, and gourds:


Everyone ate:


The camera's timer worked it's magic for a family portrait:


We had fun with the caboose in Clifton, VA after picking out the tree:


We had a few minor hangups with the tree:


But eventually managed to get it up and decorated:

River of Leaves and Museums

The majestic sycamore in our backyard certainly is beautiful. However, it produces more leaves than we were able to believe when we started our raking. Vince made a comment about our backyard wanting to be the woods, and I think he was right on. At any rate, we eventually got the lawn cleaned up, only to find it covered again this morning. Ah, fall. Despite all the complaining about hard labor and blisters, it really was a beautiful day and Eleanor and Henry enjoyed watching us rake. Eleanor even helped out a bit.





We also enjoyed having Grandma and Grandpa here over the weekend. We visited the Udvar-Hazy Center (the new part of Air and Space) and the National Portrait Gallery on Saturday and Sunday respectively. The airplanes definitely made an impression on Eleanor because she is still talking about them. All in all a wonderful weekend.

Dark and Light

There was a beautiful moment today, after the rain, when the sun was illuminating the fall colors and the sky behind was still dark. If it hadn't been for the power lines and me being embarrassed that I was in my pajamas trying to capture the moment, I think I would have had some nice shots!

Neglecting my Job

This is how I see the responsibilities of my current job:

1. Take care of Eleanor and Henry. This includes day to day stuff: feeding, playing, reading, going for adventure walks, bathing, etc., as well as once-in-a-while stuff: doctors appointments, playdates, music classes, etc. This, thankfully, is not the part of the job I have been neglecting!

(Here is where the recent neglect starts...)

2. Managing the house. This includes: keeping the kitchen and living areas somewhat clean, making sure that everyone has enough clean clothes, yard work, etc. After having my wonderful father-in-law help out with kitchen maintenance for a few days, I have gotten very lazy. My least favorite chore (unloading the dishwasher) has caused a major backup in the (extremely small) counter area. So, today while my little angels are sleeping I decided to turn around my delinquent ways and got things spic and span. Feels good.

3. Updating the family via blog, Flickr, web cam, phone, etc. about the babes. I haven't been writing much lately and I realized last night that it had been two whole weeks since I put any new pictures up. Sorry, grandparents! I really do mean to do this more often but the past couple of weeks Henry has decided to go on sleep strike and I haven't felt much like sitting in front of the computer. Well, last night Henry got back on track with a solid 9 hour performance, so I was able to post some pictures and am (as you can tell) back at the blog.

4. Other duties as assigned.

Anyway, I am lucky to have the job and I hope that I can be more attentive to the responsibilities laid out in the description. And on that note, a funny picture of Henry in his old man pants:

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?