what we were thankful for

maybe if you were a bit north on thanksgiving day you had the first snow of the year experience. we did, in cinnamon lake (at my parents' house). adeline woke up with them (my parents) so i don't know exactly what she said when she saw the wonderment of snow, but from second hand accounts it went something like this: g-no! G-NO! G-NO! (she can't say s's yet, so she uses the hard g sound instead of s sometimes...so it doesn't sound like gnome, it sounds like guh-no & yes, i do find it endearing). anyway, adeline & amelia were at the big glass window often on thanksgiving, giving the snow properly awed hellos.

& little miss amelia had her 2nd thanksgiving, but her 1st thanksgiving feast. her favorite? squash soup & wes' family meat-stuffing recipe (the demma ?? family recipe; it's sicilian & very good). she would pick through all of her food to get to this meat dressing. then she ate a few bowls of squash soup. after her first few bites of it we just put her serving into the straw bowl & she sucked it down like milk. crazy squash loving kid!

i was expecting such a mess that we just took her shirt off to eat. good idea.

& here it is, the 2nd generation table, the kid table. whatever you call it, here it is. & it is noisy. (well, the girls who sat at it were noisy, the table, not so much). i believe it is zoe on the left, adeline, then chloe on the right side of the table.

we all had a great time hanging out & passing the millie monster around (who was a bit peeved about her teeth situation. all those sore gums & sprouting teeth make for one upset little lady). then she was up for a few hours each night telling my parents (who took the amelia night shift so poor, tired wes could finally get some sleep. my meds make it so i nearly always sleep. again, poor wes.) but seriously, does anyone know just how LOUD one 3 year old, two 2 1/2 year olds, & one 15 month old can be when all in the same house on an exciting, snow covered day? oh.my.goodness. the constant ringing in my ear (tinnitus, it's a very annoying, but not major, surgery side effect) has nothing on what these girls can produce. i think they produced decimal levels that could be heard on the moon (with the proper equipment, of course).

& i totally did not get a picture of my girls in their matching outfits. (seriously pisses me off when i think about it. not ONE picture?!)

on friday, my sister & mom *forced*--with physical threats if we did not--went out for a day-date. but we were ignorant & went outside shopping in wooster on a blustery, 25 degree day in downtown wooster. i mean, if it had been a bit warmer, say 35 degrees it would have been much more enjoyable. why we didn't just hop into a cafe & stay for a few hours instead of walking...who knows. lack of functioning brain cells from the children noise the day before? but we did have a nice lunch & still enjoyed each other's company--even though even wes had clattering teeth (in case you didn't know this: wes is hardly ever cold. it takes an amazing amount of cold wind to make him get even a mild case of the goose bumps...).

which that thought brings me to another thought: we figured out, after 7 years of being together, how to do a long car ride & each of us be comfortable with the temperature. i layered on a long sleeved t shirt, fleece, sock, booties, sweatpants, & then a double layered fleece blanket. wes wore a t shirt & rolled up his pants to his knees. then we kept the car temperature around warm-neutral. (both adeline & amelia had blankets as well. no worries, we do care about their level of comfort, lol).

anyway! wes had a great idea, to do a holiday beer sampling friday night. these are the 6 we bought from beuhlers. okay, so the 'brown shugga, sweet release' isn't exactly holiday, but i thought it would be good. it was *not*. i think my favorite was the goose island.

& i leave you with a picture of amelia reaching & pining for her all time love, squash soup. this had to be her 4th bowl of the day.

we hope everyone had a great holiday!