It's the Shirts!
There's a story. My sister bought this shirt from Old Navy. My Mom liked it so much, she decided to get herself one. They accidently sent her two, so she gave the extra to me. Now we're all cute and crazy and have matching fall-ish shirts.
I think it's hysterical.
We've not done this since a few decades ago, when Mom got us all matching jammies when we went to Michigan with my Grandparents and Uncle Bob.
Mommy had a pretty bouquet on her table too!
I loved these happy fall daisies.
The spread all laid out in the dining room at my Mom's new house!
All the grownups actually getting ready to eat!
*Picture by Christopher
My Sister and Mom decided that dinner would be in two shifts. The kids were having such a fine time that they completely missed dinner as it was being set up. Rather than interrupt their happy play, we just let them play. We got to eat our entire dinner, and chat, sentences and all. Take note, that was TWO Days in a Row! Dogs and Cats!
The kids having their Thanksgiving dinner.
Note that Sam was not present.
Sam woke up with Pink Eye on Friday morning. His eye was cemented shut. So I ran him over to CVS Minute Clinic and they gave him some eye drops. But they said he was communicable for 24 hours. So Eric and I split up. Divide and Conquer. Eric stayed home with Sam, and I took the other boys to my Mom's for dinner. We were able to also stay the night, since we didn't have to worry about Daddy's allergies. Slumber Party!
The kids were so stoked, totally beside themselves.
After dinner, Uncle Rick broke out the big guns.
He always brings the niftiest drinkies. He brought margarita mix, but he made mine with the glass dipped in watermelon sugar. Watermelon sugar?! Have you ever tried this? It was great! Normally, tequila and I are not friends. But on this day yes please! That sugar made the margarita perfect. By the end I was licking it up like a lollipop, I swear it was so yummy. And I only had the one, so tequila and I stayed sympatico.
Meanwhile, after the kids ate, Uncle James had a gift for Chris.
It's his old Compass.
This thing has been all over the world, doing an Army job of direction.
And now it belongs to the next generation. Chris was so excited, and I got teary.
I tried to record James explaining some of it. Apparently, this thing is Old, like Grenada era old, maybe Vietnam, and he grabbed it from the supply closet in TX, and took it to Ethiopia and Jordan, and elsewhere that he might be able to tell us in 50 years or so.
Uncle James gives Chris the Army Compass.
Not only does it give directions, but it will do this fancy triangle thing, to tell triangulate position by degrees. It was fascinating. I hope Chris understood, because I didn't.
Chris put that thing on his belt immediately, and didn't take it off for three days!
The next morning, I got up with Jacob at a reasonable hour, because we had to go to Gymnastics.
Turns out Gymnastics is a quick hop from my Mom's house. I like walking around the track while the kids do their thing. Jacob was quite well behaved, and his class size was extra small because of the holiday weekend. So that all went well.
After that, we had brunch. Eric and Sam came up (by 11, Sam was non-communicable) and joined us.
My Mom and Lisa had made this casserole, and Aunt Debbie brunch casserole, with layers of potatoes, cheese, cream of mushroom, sausage, topped with bacon and cheese. My children all ate some, and I couldn't believe it. I ate well, and drank coffee. Turns out I'd broken into my Christmas present, a bag of Thanksgiving blend coffee from Starbucks. I've been dying to try it, and James gets one free bag a week. Apparently, he's been acquiring. So, I opened it, made a pot, and Loved it!
It's a nice gently spiced coffee. So what if I got it early, now I'm all set with coffee for the Season!
So then we sat around for like two hours and chatted while the kids all played.
It was nice.
Uncle Rick and Trish wanted to 'do something'. It took us forever to figure out what to do.
Much research was done.
Eventually we decided to go check out the new Carmel Christkindlmarkt on the lawn by the Palladium. It's kind of like a European fair, with a new ice skating rink.
The going was free, but none of the stuff was.
We did NOT avoid the crowds.
Nana and all her Grandkids
We found the ice rink was hopping. The line for it was crazy.
Luckily, the kids were ok with us not spending a bunch of money on it.
Actually, my reply when they said I want to skate, was Oh, did you bring money for that?
I didn't. I came for hot cheese.
All the grandkids, proving they are a bunch of turkeys.
Uncle Rick and Trish turn out to be a couple turkeys.
Eric's leg was giving him fits, and he couldn't stand long, so anywhere he could sit, he did.
The boys curled up with him, while I was taking photos of Rick and Trish.
They are cute together, it reminds me of the days way back when Eric and I were dating.
It was a little chilly outside, but not bad, high 40s.
They had these firestops along the journey up and down aisles.
But it was so crowded, there was no room for all of us to sit and get toasty.
We liked walking all around and checking out all the various shops and seeing what they were selling. If I had $, I could've gotten pretty crazy.
OK, the real reason we went to this thing.
I'd seen a video of hot cheese.
They serve up this cheese on a loaf of bread and spread it like butter.
I wanted to try it.
And not surprisingly at all, so did my entire family!
I mean come on, this is how they cook the cheese.
By heating a half a wheel of cheese!
Oh man!
Mommy and the girls want Hot Cheese too!
We waited in line almost an hour for this hot cheese.
I was impressed the kids didn't lose it entirely. But my Mom and I were hot stressed messes by the time we got to the front of the line. Did I mention we did NOT avoid the crowds on Thanksgiving Saturday at the Kindlmarket?! Oy.
Our crew orders their sandwiches. Turns out you don't have to just eat cheese and bread, you can get ham and cheese, or salami and cheese, with cheese, German mustard and gherkins. It sounded weird, but then I tasted, and Oh Mama!
Sam in a happy place.
He has cheese.
That would be mine. Cooking.
Hot Cheese.
Eat your heart out!
This is a man happy to have a hot cheese baguette. So Good!
Trish had hoped to see some snow coming North.
We found some.
But I suspect these were the droppings of the zamboni from the ice rink.
No proof though.
The bit of snow made Rick and Trish smile.
It was a good visit, just an hour or two outside the house.
That was enough for me.
I was so stressed out by the crowds. I'd kept Chris close so he didn't get too crazy, but I did. I get so frazzled when I anticipate a situation that could go bad. And there wouldn't have been an easy out, it took us 15 minutes just to get into the parking garage. Oh well, we had our cheese sandwiches, and headed back to Mom's. Shortly after the sun set, the boys and I all went home. I was exhausted.
It doesn't look like we did much, but I can tell you, I didn't gain any weight over those couple days.
That's a Thanksgiving miracle too!
