Our Thanksgiving

Hope your Thanksgiving was a fun food-filled event. Given the largeness of my baby belly, we opted to stay home and invited family to our place. It was actually the first time in 20 years that my parents didn't have Thanksgiving at their house. What a break with tradition! Thanks for sacrificing on our behalf. My younger brother Eli and a friend of his from school, Zach, joined us as well.

They arrived Wednesday afternoon and my dad commenced with his project: building a custom castle loft bed for my kids. (Just so you don't think I'm some sort of spoiled slave-driving daughter, my dad's idea of a good vacation is working on a project. Really.) The inspiration for the project came from wanting the IKEA reversible Kura bed to solve our small bedroom dilemma of where to put the kids with the imminent arrival of one more. But I didn't want to spend $200 on an IKEA quality bed, as much as I liked the concept. So after several phone conversations and discussions, we settled on a design. More on this in a subsequent post.



While dad cut and sanded the rest of us cooked or played games or made some sort of havoc of one kind or another, giving him a hand when needed of course. Our turkey this year was a free-range 18 pounder that we dry-brined by rubbing salt and herbs under the skin and letting it brine in it's own juices for a few days. Then we rubbed it with a baking powder/salt rub, cooked it breast side down at 325* for a couple of hours with salt pork on top to baste it (that has some technical cooking name I can't remember), flipped it over and finished it off at 425* for almost an hour until it came to temperature. It was remarkably good if I do say so myself. Thank you again Cook's Illustrated!



(So maybe it doesn't LOOK that fabulous, but it was moist and flavorful! We really should buy a decent roasting pan and v-rack.)

Rounding out our menu was:
-mashed potatoes
-candied sweet potatoes
-southern style baked corn
-stuffing
-green beans (plain, for the kids)
-cranberry sauce
-rolls
-turkey and gravy of course
-drinks: a keg of Virgil's Root Beer, sparkling apple and pear juice







Games were played and pies were consumed later on that evening. Munchkin might become one of my new favorite games. Friday was more of the same, hanging around the house, finishing up projects/conversations, ending with a rousing game of Pictionary by the grown-ups before Grandma, Grampa, Uncle Eli and "Uncle Zach" headed back to Salem.

We finished off the weekend by watching "the largest daytime Christmas parade in northern California" with friends along our main street, having hot cocoa with them afterward, putting up Christmas lights and eating Thai food for dinner. I love long family filled holiday weekends.

We Need A Day of Rest

A busy end to a busy week.
Matt was out of town until Wednesday night, Thursday was the typical crazy day of speech therapy and gymnastics with another curve ball of Site Council (PTA type meeting) thrown in at the same time as Evalyn's gymnastics. I was very literally home for a total of 3 hours in between 8AM and 5PM.

On Friday, I baked 3 pies and finished final touches on a 15 min slideshow/movie for our big annual early Thanksgiving/Christmas church dinner that night. We arrived early for the dinner so I could set up all the A/V stuff. And then stayed after to visit and help clean-up. Kids had fun running around the church for the last hour of it all. Late bedtimes, tired parents, but it was a nice evening with good friends and good food.

Baby Prep Stuff
Saturday morning. Matt made snickerdoodles with the kids while I prepped and primed the office for a new shade of green paint. While the primed spots were was drying, we all went down to tour the hospital to see where we'll likely be having this baby. It's very small but we felt good about it and the staff's commitment to following our birth plan. There are only 2 labor and delivery rooms and 2 post-partum rooms. Good news is, there's only a handful of people due the last 2 weeks of December so chances are very high I'll get my own post-partum room. Yay for that.

I also had a nice long conversation with Kathy the lactation consultant and feel much more confident in what techniques we can try this time around to get more breast milk out of me for the baby. If we hadn't been moving when Linnea was born, I would've sought out some more options than we had with the previous two. There was just too much going on then to try anything more. But that's water under the bridge. It was good to get our heads more in the game of actually having this baby and what our post-partum life will entail as far as feeding the baby goes.

It was also important too because I'd still been contemplating whether a homebirth could still work for us even if I am GBS postive (won't know for sure on that till first week of Dec). But more than likely I am and that means I will forgo that idea unless this baby falls out of me before we get to the hospital. Not very likely given my history. I'd really love to have one of those big warm padded birthing tubs and labor and deliver in that at home, but that probably takes more planning and preparation than I've done at this point with only 4-6 weeks to go. So it was good to visit the hospital and feel like we could have a good birth experience there with our team of nurse/midwife/family practice doctor that we've chosen. Although a big part of me still wishes that they could show up at my home instead... or there was a fabulous birth center like we enjoyed for our first two...

Anyway, after the hospital it was home for lunch and more painting before we ran out the door again to Medford for the rest of the day. I wanted a darker shade of the very pale light green that was on the walls. But I think I went a bit too dark. "Dragon's Hide" sounded so much better than "Greenwich", even though Greenwich was the center spot on the strip of 7 colors and Dragon's Hide was just darker. I still need to do the touch up/corners/edges but it is definitely darker! Perhaps a less contrasting trim color will help. If I can snag Matt's work camera I'll try and post some pics of it soon and ask for some feedback. (We still need to decide what we'll replace our lost camera with....soon!!)

Why we'll most likely opt for a hotel room next Stake Conference.
This weekend is also our semi-annual church meeting where we meet with church leaders from our geographic area, called a stake, made up of several wards/congregations. Typically there are training meetings for the leaders over the various organizations for children, youth, women and men. Since Matt and I both have leadership callings (he's in Elder's Quorum and I am in Primary) we both had meetings this afternoon. Holly: 2:30-3:30, Matt: 3:30-5:00. Dinner Break. Adult session: 6:00-7:30. Then Sunday morning is the 10:00-12:00 meeting.

Only kink is that we live an hour a way from the Stake Center. So we left our house at 1PM. Plan A was Matt would run some errands with the kids while I was at my meeting, then I would run a few more errands with the kids after my meeting and head home with the kids around 4:30-5:00. Matt would stay for the evening session and get a ride home with someone from Yreka. About halfway into Plan A, Matt suggested Plan B: the kids could just play in one of the rooms with books/crayons during the evening meeting and then we could all go home together, that way I could hear the talks then too. I said sure why not. At least this way the kids will fall asleep in the car and we can just transfer them. Plus Matt and I would get some extra conversation time.

Why Holly will re-stock her car with clothing
So I'm at Jo-Ann's trying to remember what color of sequin trim I'm supposed to get Evalyn for one of her costumes for the ballet performance in a few weeks. I give up and decide to head back to the church. As I'm checking out, I smell a poopy diaper. But it wasn't Linnea, it was poor Henry who thought he'd just wet his pants. Ooops. I can't remember the last time he's had an accident like this. No change of clothes but miraculously a random pair of underwear surfaces in the car. Saved. Almost. At this point I perhaps should've switched back to Plan A and headed home with my pantless boy. But I figured why turn back now? We still need to eat before we head home anyway. By then it's only another hour before Matt will be finished as well.

In very quick time we rushed to Target, nestled Henry into the back of a conveniently abandoned cart with his coat zipped over his legs, buckled the very whiny Linnea into the front with Evalyn in tow.
Pants, check. (I contemplated PJ's at this point, but the pants were cheaper.)
Diapers, since we needed them and I like Target's new brand, check.
Random hairbows that Evalyn snagged from some end cap, check. because I didn't feel like arguing even though I know I will be picking them up and vacuuming them for the next few weeks. weak moment.
Socks for Linnea, check. (Rats! It was Henry that needed socks!! I just now remember...)
Dinner from their food counter, check. It was easier than a drive-thru at this point.
Stop in their nice big bathroom with my paid for merchandise to change Henry, check.

Back to the church to catch the last hour of the evening session. Kids did okay, though it was hard to hear all of the talks over their din. By the last Amen and the strains of the closing hymn, Henry was in meltdown mode and Linnea was at her most independent 2 year old self. As we were buckling into the car (freezing cold wind blowing) Henry had a crying/coughing fit and I could tell it would end with him gagging and throwing up. Sure enough, but I wasn't quick enough with the tissues/bag. Off with that shirt and on with his coat for the ride home. I really do wonder sometimes, if I DID have my usual bag of extra clothes in the back, would this have all happened?? ; )

Fortunately the ride home was uneventful, Matt and I did enjoy some nice conversation, the kids fell asleep and they transferred to their beds without a peep. Now to get up in the morning and do most of it all over again.

Seriously, once you figure 2 round trips at $20 in gas for each trip, that's $40 into a hotel room. Throw in the price of a babysitter for the 6+ hours, assuming we don't pack the kids along next time and that's another $40 easily. Come spring conference we're going to try it out. Except now that I think of it, we'll probably have to get 2 rooms since we'll have an occupancy of 6 by then. Hmmmm, I think we need to make more friends with people in Medford....

I heard this on NPR

While running some errands this evening before COB, I was able to listen to quite a bit of NPR, with only brief interruptions and no competition from sweet little voices in the back seat asking me about going to the park or when it's going to snow or what animals eat what (Henry's latest interest, similar to his "Does it bite?" phase. All very important conversations to have in the car, to be sure. But since I rarely tune in around the house, the 5 min here and there during picking up and dropping off and going here or there amounts to 95% of my news intake.

So tonight, just as I was pulling into the driveway, this news headline made me laugh out loud to myself: Swine Flu and Santas, what many groups are doing to prevent further spread of the flu. The gloves are coming off. "We're going to make hand sanitizing part of the Santa Visit Ritual." Maybe it's been a long day, but that just seemed really weird to me.

Next was hearing listeners responses to a story I actually heard part of earlier in the week about breast cancer awareness/prevention/testing/detection. A lot of confusion stemmed from studies indicating that breast self-examinations shouldn't be taught or encouraged. I guess the reasoning is a high number of false-positives that can lead to more testing and that was bad, or something. Whereas simply focusing on "breast awareness" is just as effective. Much as you would be aware if there was a lump on your leg because you are aware of what is normal for your body. Also, "early detection" of breast cancer via self-discovery of a lump usually meant that at that point the cancer had already spread significantly enough that early detection was a mute point. In other words, early detection via self-exam may be a misnomer. I'm sure I got a lot of this wrong, but it's definitely something to be aware of. And, as with most new studies, it is controversial, especially amongst breast-cancer survivors and advocates. For those who are interested, read more here.

Third thing I thought sounded interesting, The Decade's Most Important Recordings. For the record, I'm not a music junkie. And I'm usually not big into Most Important/Top Whatever lists because there's always so much that isn't on it. Yes I own an iPod but my Top 25 Played in iTunes is most likely Children's Music, Audiobooks or Podcasts.

I'm woefully ignorant of a variety of genres and the significance of artists within those. If it wasn't for college roommates back in the day, and later on my husband, I would be even more woefully ignorant. Surprising to me as I reflect on it, the majority of those days were in the previous decade to this one. *sigh*. So it's only through various friends and their recommendations (mostly on their blog playlists) that I have any insight into the modern music world. And the random NPR story of course. But I would like to know more, to a certain extent.

So this list looks interesting, and the comments that inevitably go with it. If for anything to give me some glimpse into what's what. Of course this is subjective to what "they" think is significant. What I like to listen to and think of as good or significant is my own thing. IF I were into lists I'd probably make one of Music That's Significant To Me and paste it down below. But would it really mean anything to anyone else? Besides I've got at least a dozen other things on my to-do list (one kind of list that I DO find essential) that are more important. But most importantly, I have a 2yo climbing on my back who needs her bedtime stories read. So there you go.

Halloween: Sans Camera

We enjoyed a very low key and fun Halloween this year. With school activities and playdate parties and other costume wearing events, it lasted all week! Friday was the climax with the big Halloween parade in our cozy little downtown. The middle school band plays while the younger two elementary schools parade down main street and then back to their classrooms for Halloween parties the rest of the day. Tons of fun to see all the costumes and and teachers dressed up for the parade. Henry and Linnea and myself even joined in at the very end with the pre-school Evalyn attended last year. We marched along for a couple of blocks. It was fun waving and seeing friends we recognized on the side lines.

I took some cute pictures of that and our family pumpkin patch outing and the kids in their cute costumes earlier in the week. But somewhere after the parade the camera disappeared. Gone. Vanished. It probably fell out of the stroller or car when I put the stroller back in and was in a hurry to get to Evalyn's class to deliver some caramel apples for their class party.

I didn't notice it missing until Saturday morning. I assumed it was in the diaper bag. But a thorough check of the car and all through the house and driveway and even the street where I parked and a stop at the police station yielded nothing. Our last ditch effort is to post a classified ad and a few posters, but I have little hope in that.

So no pictures of Matt and the kids spray painting their paper mache pumpkins that he worked on with them all week. Henry wanted to be a pumpkin and Matt said he would do it. By Saturday afternoon he had a very fun pumpkin head for Henry to wear with his glow in the dark skeleton pajamas from Grammum. Earlier in the week he was a scarecrow and a prince and a cowboy, all courtesy of our very well stocked dress-up box.

Evalyn wanted to be Barbie's Mariposa Princess Butterfly, etc. We got creative with her fun sparkly butterfly swimsuit and skirt from the summer, a pair of dollar store wings from an earlier birthday party and some fun hair styling/makeup. She was happy. And she also dressed up as Ariel the mermaid for her ballet class.

Linnea was a puppy dog that she also wore last year and Henry the year before that. She was also a little flower fairy courtesy of the dress-up box. She actually loves to wear hats and hoods so it was fun that she kept her costume on the whole time!

But no pictures of that or the Trunk or Treat and our very cool decorated back of the car that Matt and the kids did while I was mixing together hot cocoa to bring. No pumpkin carving pictures or glowing jack o' lanterns. No halloween loot snapshots of the kids in candy heaven.

Matt did pull out his trusty vintage Nikon and snapped some shots with that, so hopefully we'll get some nice prints back at some point. Fortunately, some friends have emailed/posted a couple of pictures, but none of Evalyn yet.


marching in the parade with the preschool


at our friend Jenn's house (Linnea is hiding behind Tigger)